Chapter Text
On her way out of the office floor of Hendrick’s, Rose Marion Tyler smiled at the calendar one of the girls had faithful red xs on each day past. The day she waited for arrived, Thursday the third of March 2005. Bag in her room ready and waiting for the next morning. Her Mum prepped for a year’s separation. Rose just needed that cool hand to take her heart again with but a single word.
“Rose! Glad I caught you on your way home. About that meeting next week with the Stygga Vargen account–”
Mete Harts, Rose’s now former boss again tried to swing the young woman to stay on with the company. He’d messed with her schedule four times in as many weeks, pleaded in front of other employees, and tried to introduce her as his star manager to every client possible. The guy simply could not let her go. But, she had her plans for this go in life.
“We have been over this a hundred times, Mete. I am leaving tomorrow night for at least a year and possibly more. Told you about this when I was hired.”
“But why? You have so much potential!”
She forced her temper down along with the accusation of greed in her throat. “I made plans years ago and know, with my Doctor is where I will make the most difference. Now, button it already. You have the accounts and all the backups in the normal places. Also, I’ve made provisions for something along the lines of the Blitz ever repeating itself. Here are the mirror file addresses.”
She handed over a couple thumb drives to have the man grab her hand tight. “Rose, there is more reason to have you here than potentials of career and money.”
“Don’t, just don’t. I’m in love with my Doctor. He is my reason to live.”
“But… I could–”
Rose shook her head. “No you can’t, Mete. He alone makes me happy.”
“You never gave me a chance.”
“Because I have been in a relationship with him longer than we’ve known one another.”
Mete tried to draw Rose closer, but she stepped away. An expression of warning lit on her face. His eyes teared up. “Believe me, I knew that from the start. But, Rose.”
“I have my mind made up, Mete. Goodbye.”
She turned to leave, but his hold on her wrist tightened. A dark look filed his eyes. “You do not know this Doctor well as you think, Rose. He is not the good man he pretends he is.”
“I know him better than you think, Mete.”
“But I know him even better than you believe, Rose. Avoid him this time around.”
Honey hazel eyes lit in shocked confusion and widened. “What do you mean?”
“We both know what I mean, Slem Ulv. What I would do to have what the universe gave to you, a human female.”
Her instincts kicked up. Human female meant her former boss was not human. “Real name, species, and place of origin.”
“You will not believe me.”
Rose glared in a hard defiance. “Try me.”
“The Valeyard, something of a Time Lord, and you are determined to uncreate me, as it were.”
Something of a Time Lord? The Doctor’s people never meshed words, so this man had to be a hybrid. But how could she uncreate him? “Place of origin, since I know you do not come from Gallifrey.”
“Not far from the Cruicble.”
Instincts gave way to alarms. A hybrid created near the Dalek Crucible? No! This was John Smith-Noble, the man the Doctor thought she would make better – like Rose had for her beloved Time Lord. The man she was expected to marry on Pete’s World to grow old and have a life together! A man she hated for the lives he destroyed in a desperate attempt to end her life and gather what Bad Wolf left within her. Rose had a few choice words and punishments in her mind for him.
First, she needed an escape. Since age twelve, Rose had hatched a complex plan to save as many lives she could. Some were inescapable and the woman knew what happened to defy fate its due. With Jack as guide and protector, Rose straightened up in school and leaned for the classes that would grant her the best chance to help the Doctor as an adult. Computer building and programming, typing, diplomacy, martial arts, mathematics, along with creative writing. This last made Rose rewire her timeline once again with every possibility in mind.
She knew John and his weaknesses, a critical edge when in battle against him. The elevator was off limits. The door could have a seal on the lock, hopes for no dead lock. More important, John expected to have the upper hand along with his firm hold on her. Three, two, one.
A gurgled scream erupted from his throat before John dropped hard to the floor. He did not account for a wiser Tyler woman in this life. No, he expected Rose to be meek once more. Instead, Rose hit him with a Jakarvian-IV version of a stun gun. Worked on any alien race not in armor or plated like turtles. Mete, or John as Rose now knew him to be, lie on the floor out cold.
Not stupid, Rose went for the door over the elevator. Of course the arse had the fire escape dead locked! She needed a safe alternative. John would rig the elevator as a trap and Rose was not stupid enough to walk into said trap. Thank God she trusted Jack decades before.
From her purse, Rose took out the vortex manipulator the former time agent insisted his charge keep to hand at all times. Over the years, he drilled the in and outs of the device into her mind. Rose slid this on then tapped out the coordinates for the women’s bathroom near the elevators on the ground floor, just out of sight of the cameras. With the same calm speed, she had the manipulator stowed away once more while her feet carried her off to where the former timeline merged into what she, Bad Wolf, and Jack had created.
The guard flicked the lottery pool bag in the face of a different blond shop girl this time. Her name was Jenny and the pair were often called sisters. Once even they were said to be mother and daughter. But Rose interceded for her almost child.
“Bill, I have it. Didna get ta tell Wilson bye yet. Girls, get a round on me!”
She slid a couple of large bills into Jenny’s hand and took the bag. The girl smiled. “Thanks, Mum.”
“Coy.” Rose charged before both chuckled.
Jenny gave a wink, “have fun with that Doctor of yours.”
“Intend to!”
This go, Rose went to the employees lift, one that did not go to the offices upstairs. A quick scan with a remote scanner from Jack again, the elevator proved free of traps and such so this trip was still safe. Rose dove in and ached to feel that cool touch in her palm more than in the years of waiting. Years since she woke on this day when she was twelve years old with all the memories of a woman full grown.
In memory she recalled that Christmas, when the Ninth Doctor slipped into her home. A tired Rose got up to find him at work on her bike. The Doctor added a TARDIS blue bow to the red bike. “I like this better than green.”
“Me too,” Rose had whispered. “Too big to be an elf.”
“But not a helper. You’d best get back to bed before old Nick gives me a ring for a take back, little Miss. Tyler.”
“’K. But, here.” Rose gave a homemade cookie, one a flavor she knew the Doctor loved, to the man. “Even Helpers deserve treats. Happy Christmas, Santa’s Big Helper.”
The expression on his face was shock and awe. Rose loved she made his Christmas a bit brighter. Then yawned. “Maybe I’ll see ya next year. Night.”
“Sweet dreams, Rose Tyler. And I’ll see you for sure next year.”
He had too. Thirteen, she got a computer of her own with three years of internet prepaid. Fourteen, she got a load of stuff she needed for school but couldn’t afford. Fifteen, she got a superphone that looked like an ordinary blackberry. To her surprise there was the TARDIS number and another number for the Doctor along with a text on it. The text read, ‘see you in 2005.’ After that, she saw him out and about with no more Christmas dates. Too old for Father Christmas she guessed. Or it hurt him.
She had pictures of his other faces. Rose was certain this was to prevent her from crossing his previous timelines, but she looked for him instead. Each of his lives had crossed her path no less than four times. Rose felt proud to have worked so hard for his soul.
The last touch from him came from the Doctor who refused to accept that as his name the day after her eighteenth birthday. He had been fighting in the Last Great Time War and pleaded for a day with her away from Earth and the fighting. Rose could see the man needed a reason to live and continue the fight, so she went off with her love.
Warrior took her to the most peaceful planet in the universe. Here he broke down in her arms. With her, safe from reality, he let go the pain and sorrow while Rose held him with his head under her chin. Warrior wanted to know why she would love him if she knew what he did, what he planned to do when he went back to the war. This told Rose her love would need her again soon and how damaged her first Doctor once was without her.
“Actions say much about a person, intent and choices prove if one is good or bad or just in between. I know you had no choice but to fight. You fight for the whole universe.”
“I don’t, you know.”
Rose blinked before she looked down into his serious face. “What do you mean?”
“My reason to fight is not for the damn universe. The rest just reap the benefits of the real reason I stained my soul with centuries of blood.”
“Would I be too forward to ask you why you fight then?”
He sat up to lay her back on the ground so he might lie on top of her. Those eyes firm and serious but filled with longing. She’d never deny him a thing. Her hands touched both sides of her face with love and trust before Rose went on to slide her hands up and wrapped her arms around his neck. Emboldened, Warrior lowered his face until their noses touched and three hearts raced in anticipation and desire with fear of rejection.
“I fight for your life and a future with you, my Rose.”
Tears filled her eyes flavored with gratitude and awe. He loved her this soon?
Warrior answered her silent question with a deep kiss before his hands began to touch her in ways none of his other lives ever attempted. Rose moaned, whimpered, and swallowed every kiss while her body ground against her Time Lord love. They made love and he was Rose’s first time, not Jimmy Stone or Mickey Smith. And this first time meant more than both humans combined. For Time lords, sex was not just for pleasure but a rare act to show what even the Gallifreyan language could not express. She would have loved to have a child, but Rose was not fertile that day and Warrior doubted they’d ever have children. But it was a nice dream for after the war. To try and make a life together as his once human mother had with his father.
Once the doors opened to the basement, Rose came back to the present and pretended she didn’t know Wilson was already dead. This way she could make the script work close as possible to how she remembered that night. Like the first go, she knocked on the door and called out to no one.
“Wilson? Wilson, I've got the lottery money. Wilson, are you there?”
Rose waited a few beats then altered the script a measure. “I can't hang about 'cos the boss is still trying to get at me. Wilson! Oh, come on.”
On cue, the sound of metal hit against concrete snapped her attention to the door that began her life. Rose made no show she considered the noise to be the dead man. “Who’s there?”
She flicked on the lights as she went into the storeroom because this alone moved her back to her Doctor. Rose prayed in silence he was on time and still chose to come save her. When she heard the clatter again, Rose called out even louder, “Hello?”
When she moved about where the attack began before the slam of the heavy door still made her jump. Years of training kicked in and Rose held her ground when more noises gave the Living Plastic away. Had John set this up then and now? Possible and that worried her. She didn’t bother to run back and try the locked door. Rather the young woman forced her strength to shine through.
The first dummy reacted, soon joined by more. Rose growled at the memory of how many would die this time in three days’ time. Some she could not save, but she would limit the damage much as she could. She knew the path by heart thanks to volunteering to help whenever she had time along with how she set up the path to the other door over the last few days of her employment.
“Whoever you are and whatever you want, you don’t scare me!”
Once she got into position, Rose went into defense stance, in case she faced a hard fight out of the place alone. But, the Doctor would have none of that idea. Her left hand went back to search for his and held the reward of cool flesh clamped hard on hers.
His Northern accent growled in her ear the word she longed to hear for near a decade, “run!”
Run the pair did and Rose beamed as her feet pounded to keep at his side rather than a step or two behind. On the lift, he didn’t have to pull her from the dummy but its arms still became stuck in the doors. The Doctor yanked it off, but Rose didn’t care about the script or her lines. She had the man back!
As tears tried to fill her eyes, he turned on her. “You missed your observation cue, Rose.”
“Wait!” Her mind caught fast on the truth. “You altered the script!”
“So did you, by the way.” The Doctor accused before he broke into his wide grin and snatched Rose tight to his chest. “Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth!”
At his words, Rose broke into laughter and a smile of her own. He remembered it all. Then his face grew serious. “I had a long time after I left you with my metacrisis, Rose. A long time alone and learned the harsh lesson. I will not give you up this time nor will I refuse the treasure you are. And I never did thank you for that trip to Orion’s Eye, my lady.”
Now her tears flowed. The words tripped on the way out of her throat, but Rose managed, “On what might have been the worst day of my life, what did you say and how was it going to end?”
“It does need saying then?” he asked.
Rose gave a nod with a tear down her cheek. “Sometimes, a girl likes to know that her assumptions are correct. Though you showed me in your last regeneration on the most peaceful planet in the universe.”
His hands slid to either side of her face as the Doctor made her look up at him. “I said Rose Tyler and the call cut out before I could say, I love you.”
Their lips crashed together as relief and joy flooded her soul. He did love her still. Nightmares fled while sweet dreams rejoiced. Near their floor, he broke he kiss to stare at her with pleasure soaked into his features.
“For how long?” she asked.
A smirk twitched the corner of his lips. “I don’t go back for anyone, Rose. Ever. Since run our first lives and since my earliest face now.”
Her hands drew his face down until Rose took another kiss from the man she loved dearly. They hummed as this kissed ended and she panted. “John told me the truth about why you never said it, including about my being with other guys, well sneered it actually. Told me I was seen as a whore by your people, so I saved myself for just one man this go.”
“But he should have loved you as much as I.”
Rose shook her head. “No, he was not filled with any good, love. He was all of your darkness made worse by the battle that bore him and stirred by his act of genocide. Worse, he is in this building now and knows I know the way things one might have happened. Please, use this to get to the roof and back down.”
She pulled out her vortex manipulator, but the Doctor smiled. “Rose, Time Lord, me. I can manipulate time around me. John can’t. He took that for a name?”
“At first, then he began calling himself the Valeyard. You know that name.” Rose deduced from the reaction her love gave. An indrawn hiss and jerk back of his head.
“My sixth regeneration. I’ll tell you the story later. How can you be sure?”
Rose beamed at him. “Simple. He tried to turn me away from ‘uncreating’ him this time around as I plan to do when the Crucible event arrives. Please be careful.”
“You be careful going home to our TARDIS.”
“The Doctor in the TARDIS with Rose Tyler then?” she asked and a proud smile erupted into her lips.
His blue eyes sparkled. “As it should be.”
“And always will be,” she promised. “Forever.” With another kiss to seal her vow to him, the script threw a new change into the mix.