Chapter Text
It had been the Doctor’s idea to come to the planet Vashti, and Rose was of the opinion now that it was an exceptionally bad idea.
Usually, when Rose ended up in a jail cell, she knew what she had done to earn such a fate; simple, minor and mistaken though the infraction may be. She also usually ended up in a cell with the Doctor. Neither of these were true today. Today, she was in a cell by herself, separated from the Doctor, and she had absolutely no idea what she’d done to deserve this.
They’d come to Vashti because the Doctor told her that the glass on this planet was similar to stained glass, but occurred naturally. The Vashtans had sculpted the glass into statues, and he said that they looked like smooth piles of jewels in various shapes. Rose had been intrigued; she’d always enjoyed visiting cathedrals and touring castles, and the windows were always her favorite part. So she’d been enthusiastic about the visit. She looked forward to seeing the way these statues caught the light and thought that this time, the Doctor seemed to have had an almost romantic idea. Not that they were romantic, mind. The Doctor would never go for that.
She and the Doctor had been touring the city, hand-in-hand, for only a few minutes when it happened. They were looking up at the marvelous statues in the statue garden he’d brought her to when Rose had doubled over with a stomach cramp. Just a cramp, she’d told him, but being his usual overprotective self, he’d insisted on scanning her to find out the cause of the problem and soothe her pain. He’d pulled out the sonic and aimed it at her lower belly, and Rose thought she’d die of mortification if he told her that she simply needed to go to the bathroom. She’d felt immediately better, however, and told him so, thanking him.
The next thing she knew, there were uniformed, purple-skinned, humanoid guards upon them, telling them they were under arrest. The Doctor demanded to know why, but was met with stony silence. Rose had been through enough arrests with the Doctor to know to keep her mouth shut and do as she was told by the guards, then follow the Doctor’s instructions once they were locked away. Remembering all she’d learned, she’d gone along with them, meekly.
Things had not gone the way they usually did.
This time, they’d been separated into not only different cells, but different wings of the jail. Rose had felt panic rising and asked her captors, then, just what she had done. They hadn’t responded at all, and she’d tasted bitter adrenaline in the back of her mouth when they closed and locked the door behind her.
Now, hours later, she sat in her (admittedly comfortable) cell, and she’d had no contact with the outside world. She wondered what the Doctor was doing and assumed he must be using his magnificent gob to talk them out of this one. She certainly hoped so, anyway.
The door to her cell swung open, and two armed guards entered. One was carrying a machine of some sort, it looked like a printer or something, and the other was empty handed. Rose tensed at the machine, worried that it may be a torture device of some kind. The guard with the machine went to the small table in the corner of her room and set it down, while the other guard stood before her.
“My name is Medlin, and I am the interrogator,” he said, grasping his arms behind her back.
His tone was not vicious or violent, and Rose felt a surge of bravery. “I have some questions, too, yeah? Like, ‘where is the Doctor’ and ‘why am I here’?”
“You are here because you and your companion, this ‘Doctor’, broke our laws.”
“What laws? We didn’t do anything wrong!”
“But you did, Miss…”
“Tyler. Rose Tyler.”
“Right. As I was saying, Miss Tyler, here on Vashti, we have a strict moral code. Men and women are to be married before they appear together in public. That can be forgiven in this case, considering you are off-worlders and that is not a law - more of a societal norm. What cannot be forgiven and forgotten, however, are your affectionate displays or your use of a marital aid - particularly in public.”
Rose was confused. “The Doctor and I are friends,” she insisted. “Where we’re from, friends are allowed to show affection to one another. And what is a ‘marital aid’?”
“It’s the device your partner was using in an attempt to bring you...pleasure.”
Rose was still confused. “The only way he was trying to bring me pleasure was by showing me your glass sculptures, and how beautiful they are.”
Medlin looked at her disbelievingly, cocking a violet eyebrow. “Is that so?” he asked sardonically. “We disagree, and even if we didn’t, there’s still the matter of the affectionate displays in a public area. Now, as I was telling you, I am the interrogator.”
“You can’t torture me,” she threatened. “The Doctor will tear this place apart if you do.”
Medlin chuckled. “No, no. You won’t be tortured, we like to think of ourselves as a peaceful, hospitable planet. You will be granted a trial before a magistrate, and a Speaker of the Law will decide your fate. You won’t appear alone; there will be a Counselor of the Law provided to you.”
“I want to speak with my attorney, then” Rose demanded, remembering the practices and customs of earth. “I want to talk to who will be defending me.”
“You won’t meet them until you get to court. And there’s no reason for you to fear, Miss Tyler. I will merely be questioning you. It would be best for you if you’re honest. I will know if you’re not, and it won’t go well for you.”
Rose took deep breaths. The Doctor was bound to be figuring a way out of this for them. She had faith in his ability to get them out of here alive, and without having to serve out prison terms. She looked over at the machine on the table, beside the other guard, and felt her anxiety rise again. “What’s that for, then?” she demanded, pointing at the printer-shaped machine.
“Ardson is here to monitor the proceedings and make sure you get a fair interrogation. The kiadon there on the table is going to record and interpret our conversation.”
She cast another wary eye at the kiadon, then at Ardson, who sat benignly beside it. How was this box going to interpret their conversation? She had no clue, but she only had one way to find out - and it seemed she was going to find out. She steeled herself for the interrogation.
“Alright,” she said, squaring her shoulders and facing Medlin. “I’m ready. Ask away.”
~*~O~*~
Medlin had asked the standard questions she would expect in an interrogation, except that he focused on the Doctor and her relationship with him for a long time. She’d been as honest as she could without revealing her feelings, telling him that they were strictly platonic friends who travelled together, and that nothing untoward had ever happened. He seemed skeptical (and rightly so), then launched into a littany of questions about her sexual relationship with the Doctor and just why they felt the need to use a marital aid in public.
Rose was mortified when she finally realized that by ‘marital aid’, Medlin meant ‘sex toy’, and he thought that the Doctor had been trying to bring her off in the middle of the statue garden.
“You’re an off-worlder,” Medlin had said. “And you claim to be a traveler. Surely you acquaint yourself with the local customs of the places you visit before you go?”
She’d been angry and humiliated. The Doctor brought her to these places. She was a shop girl from South London. How was she to know what different cultures and species did?
After several hours of embarrassing questions, Medlin and Ardson had seemed satisfied with her answers and left her to her mortification.
~*~O~*~
A short while later, two guards appeared and put her in handcuffs, taking her down the hall and into what appeared to be a courtroom. She was uncuffed and told to stand behind a podium, which she did. A few moments passed while she looked around the room nervously, then a Vashtan woman in long indigo robes appeared, taking her place behind a tall desk.
“Miss Tyler,” she began, “my name is Shara-ni. I am the Speaker of the Law for this province, and I am here to judge your case.”
“Please, Shara-ni,” Rose began immediately, “we meant no harm to anyone. We weren’t aware of the customs of this planet and I promise you, we never would have broken any laws had we been aware of them.”
Shara-ni ignored her, shuffling papers in front of her. “According to the kiadon, you are in a romantic relationship with your codefendant, the Doctor.”
Rose protested her innocence. “No, your honor, the Doctor and me...we’re just friends.”
The Speaker of the Law looked at her then, raising an eyebrow. “Oh? Is that so? I’m forced to disagree, Miss Tyler. The kiadon indicates romantic inclinations on both your parts.”
Rose stood there, stunned. On both of our parts? she thought wildly.
She must have spoken aloud, because Shara-ni answered, “Yes, on both of your parts,” Shara-ni said. “Both of your kiadon readings indicate that you are in love with the other and have inclinations and desires of a...of a nature that may lead you to use a marital aid.”
“That’s not possible. He doesn’t want me like that. We’re just mates.”
“‘Just mates’ don’t use marital aids on one another,” Shara-ni replied sardonically.
“It’s not a marital aid,” Rose protested. “It’s a sonic screwdriver. A tool. It fixes things, detects things.”
“A tool, you say? Tools don’t typically give someone physical pleasure when they’re employed, unless they’re a marital aid.”
“I was having a pain in my stomach. The Doctor used it to make the pain go away.”
“And for no other purpose?”
“No, your honor.”
“Despite his desire to bring you sexual and romantic pleasure?”
Rose flushed. “I don’t believe that the Doctor has any desire to bring me sexual or romantic pleasure. We’re just mates.”
Shara-ni scoffed. “The Doctor protested the same thing, but I assure you, the biological readouts indicated otherwise. For both of you.”
She opened her mouth, but no sound would come out. Shara-ni watched her carefully. “I suggest to you, just as I did your Doctor, that you figure out a solution to your issue of unrequited romantic feelings. And that you stay away from planets whose customs you don’t know.”
Rose nodded at this last part. “Yes, your honor.”
Shara-ni got to her feet, shuffling papers as she stood. “You’re dismissed back to your cell while I deliberate. That is all.”
“Thank you, your honor.”
~*~O~*~
When Medlin and Ardson came back a few hours later they clanged her door open, waking Rose from a fitful sleep. She sat up, yawning and rubbing her eyes.
“What’s happening?”
“You’re being permitted to leave,” Medlin said. “But you are banished from Vashti and must never come back.”
“And the Doctor?”
“He is being permitted to leave as well,” Medlin said. “We’re here to escort you sign your banishment papers, and then to your ship.”
Rose wasn’t about to argue and jumped to her feet, following them eagerly. Medlin did no more than put one hand on her bicep gently and led her to a room upstairs. She looked around the room when she got there, raking her eyes over the place for the Doctor. She spotted him at a nearby desk. His hands were cuffed behind his back - apparently, his jailers weren’t as trusting of him as Medlin and Ardson had been.
Her anger and humiliation washed away in a flash when she saw that despite being restrained, he seemed alright. She shook her arm free of Medlin’s grip and rushed to him.
“Doctor!”
He looked up, and his eyes were a clear warning to stay back. She stopped in her tracks, just a couple of feet away. She’d forgotten that the whole reason they were in this mess was because they were so affectionate with each other. The hug she’d been going for, instinctively, would have been a fantastically bad idea right as they were about to be released.
Medlin came up behind her almost immediately after the slid to a stop in front of the Doctor and took her arm again, a bit more firm this time. “You need to come with me - you have to sign the documentation of your banishment.” She followed, but not before looking up at the Doctor again.
“Doctor?” she asked, checking with him.
“It’s alright, Rose,” he said quietly. “Sign the papers and we can go home.” His tone was reassuring, but she could see that his eyes were troubled. His head was still a little bowed, and his demure attitude frightened her. He looked...embarrassed or something. Cowed. Had they asked him the same questions they’d asked her? It worried Rose; if he discovered that she had those kinds of feelings for him, he’d surely send her home. He didn’t need a silly little human hanging all over him, she knew.
Panic rose like bile in her throat, along with the return of the embarrassment and crossness she’d felt just a few moments before. She didn’t react, though, she only nodded at the Doctor, indicating she understood then followed Medlin to the table and took her seat, signing what she was told to sign. She’d sign whatever they wanted her to. Frankly, she’d do whatever she had to do to assure their release. Rose was ready to put Vashti behind her.
~*~O~*~
They had been escorted to the TARDIS without any detours, and now Rose sat in the jump seat, staring blankly at the console while the Doctor launched them into the Vortex. He seemed cheery after their escape from trouble, but Rose felt much differently. She’d been humiliated, her feelings for the Doctor being revealed so openly. And the kiadon had indicated that he felt the same way!
Well, it was faulty. Not for her - she knew all too well how she felt about the Doctor - but it had to have been faulty for him. He’d never said or done anything to indicate… Her confusion, frustration and humiliation had returned behind the relief of being able to leave, and she didn’t really want to be around him right now. Especially now that he’d been told how she felt about him.
“Well, Rose Tyler, where to next?” he asked cheerfully. “That was a bit of a bust, but we could always go to-”
“How come you didn’t tell me about the local customs on Vashti?”
“I...er...I landed us too early in the planet’s history. I meant to land us two hundred years later, when the societal norms and laws have changed.”
“Well, you missed,” Rose said, acid lacing her words.
“I know.” He hung his head. “I’d meant for it to be a nice trip for you.”
“It wasn’t,” she said. “It was miserable, and humiliating, and...and…”
“I’m sorry, Rose.” He took a step towards her. “Let me make it up to you. I’ll take you to Mailig, it’s lovely this time of year. Well, the time of year I’m going to take us to. We’ll get chips and fruity drinks! There’s a-”
“I don’t want to go anywhere right now,” Rose cut him off, pointedly ignoring the slump of his shoulders and hurt look in his eyes. “I think I’m gonna go lie down.”
“But it’s only the afternoon,” he protested. “We’ve got plenty of time if we want to-”
“I’m going to lie down, Doctor,” she repeated firmly. “I have a headache. We can go somewhere tomorrow, but I need a little time after...after Vashti.”
He studied her, and there was something in his eyes that she didn’t quite understand. “Alright,” he said after a minute. “Shall I wake you in a while?”
“Please don’t. I’ll find you later,” she promised.
He nodded. “Sleep well, Rose.”
She didn’t answer, she just waved her hand behind her in acknowledgement as she went down the corridor to her room.