Pompeii
Summary: There’s something very wrong with Pompeii and it isn’t just accurate predictions.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who
Notes: I
know it took a long time to update, but I post blurbs once a week on my
blog so if you really wanted to keep up with it you could read it
there. Keroseneandgin WordPress.
Part XII – Twelve
He
wasn’t quite sure how Rose Tyler ended up in this previous self’s
TARDIS. He knew for fact what happened between them and what happened to
Donna and obviously Rose looked way too young to have been in the time
line where he had seen her again after Bad Wolf Bay. So, of course, he
needed answers.
How could Rose possibly have been in Pompeii if
not with his younger self and Donna? And how could she not even
recognize his younger self? That was the most intriguing part of this.
Because he knew how he was in his pin striped form and he would have
never brought Donna to a place where another of his incarnations would
have been. He swore he’d never do that again since Rose tried to bring
about the end of the world in the late ’80s.
Of course he had
later on when he had gone quite mad in his most recent form. Which led
to quite a few interesting occurrences. The most interesting of which
had been with River Song. He sighed at that thought. River Song had been
a brilliant woman and she always knew what would happen next. He had
been so lost without her for so many years after her death. He had been
lost without Rose too.
He followed them from a distance, keeping
to the shadows and watching as his younger self and Donna tried to talk
to Rose. Of course, he had royally cocked that up and sent Rose running
off into the middle of the night again, but they had to fix
this somehow didn’t they? After all, he was still here and he could
still remember Rose standing on that beach looking beautiful and his
hearts aching when she kissed his clone.
That was one of the
hardest things he had done. Giving Rose Tyler up to, well, himself on
that beach so long ago. But without a doubt in his mind he knew even now
she was happy. Or at least she would be as soon as he figured out how
to get her out of Pompeii before they all died.
Part XIII – The Beach
Rose
searched frantically for where The Doctor had parked his TARDIS earlier
that day, but it was so dark she couldn’t see anything. She searched
the pockets of her jacket to try and find a torch but to no avail. When
it got too dark to see her hands in front of her face she turned around.
By
now she knew her Doctor would be searching for her in the city and
would undoubtedly be angry she had been gone so long. Especially
considering the tremors from the volcano she had been feeling throughout
the day.
The people of Pompeii were terrified in those few
moments but seemed oblivious to the tremors afterword. As if someone had
been reassuring them nothing bad would come of it. She knew it would
only get worse. Until the people of Pompeii all died. Unable to be
saved, even for The Doctor.
“Doctor?” she called out in the
semi-lit streets of the bazaar. A few people stared at her. It was
getting late and she knew she would have to find somewhere to stay soon
if she wanted to get some rest. And since she couldn’t find her Doctor’s
TARDIS the only other place she could think to stay was where she had
met Donna and…she swallowed hard at the thought…The Doctor.
She
couldn’t remember the way back to the house she had escaped the wrong
TARDIS at, much to her dismay. So she wandered around for awhile,
calling out to The Doctor (hoping at least one of them would show up)
until her voice was hoarse and she was very nearly at the end of her
rope.
She sobbed softly and sank to the ground next to an
unfamiliar house behind some wooden crates. That’s when she heard it.
People screaming, running through the streets and loud trembling
footsteps. It sounded like a giant. Was volcano day happening already?
She
stood to her feet quickly as the footsteps grew closer. She could
barely make out the voices as she came from behind the crates to see
what the commotion was. She didn’t even have time to process the
situation when someone grabbed her hand, lacing fingers with hers and
whispered loudly, “Run“.
And she did.
Part XIV – “Run”
He
remembered doing this with her once before. Not quite with the same
hand, but at least on the very same side of him. He lost that hand after
his regeneration fighting the sycorax. It had been his favorite hand
then, but this hand was becoming a very favorite of his now.
She
held onto him tightly but didn’t even glance at him once. She kept her
eyes trained forward so she wouldn’t trip and fall over the various
obstacles in their way. He hoped that in every regeneration he had her
hand would still fit perfectly in his.
The “monster” behind them,
which was actually an “alien” called a Pyrovile was gaining on them. He
heard Donna shout next to him, threatening to murder him in cold blood
once they were finally safe again. He smiled, glancing over at her and
then back at his Rose. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been
this happy.
Rose was smiling and laughing in-between breaths as
they ran, the creature still gaining. He had almost forgotten how much
she loved the dangerous bits of being with him. He felt his hearts warm
and he smiled widely as they rounded the corner, creature crashing
behind them.
“Get down!” He heard Quintus shout, throwing a bucket
of water over their heads and onto the creature. It screamed and fell
to the ground with a loud thump.
“Guess you can kill me then,
Donna,” The Doctor said with a laugh, turning to his red headed
companion only to realize she wasn’t there.
“Donna?” He asked,
searching around frantically and tugging Rose along with him, not
willing to let go of his pink and yellow human.
How long had she been missing?
Part XV – He Loves a Red Head, Our Doctor
“What
the–” The red headed companion, Donna practically shrieked when Amy
forced her into the “lair” of The Sisterhood. Amy bit her lip and stared
at Donna. This was another one of his companions, another red headed
companion. She wasn’t really sure how she felt about this. The Doctor
didn’t talk about his past very much, but she found herself more than
just a little jealous. And when was he going to tell her that his last
self was so bloody hot? Especially for an older man. Well, not
that much older than she was now…or he didn’t look that much older
anyhow. She smirked to herself and licked her lips.
“Who the heck
are you lot?” the red head asked, hands on her hips, bringing Amy’s
attention away from the extremely attractive Doctor and back to reality,
“If you think you can just kidnap me and not explain what the bloody
hell is going on…” she continued, voice rising with every word. Amy
sucked in a breath and grabbed her by the arm before anyone else could
react and hauled her away from the watchful eyes of her sisters.
“Play
along, okay?” Amy whispered harshly, trying to remain in character as
much as possible, “I know about The Doctor.” Donna pulled away from her
quickly and rolled her eyes.
“Of course you lot do,” she said, “I
saw what your new seer did in that house, predicting the return of Rose.
Givin’ him hope, then things go all pear shaped.”
“Rose?” Amy
whispered, trying desperately to keep her voice down. Donna met her eyes
and pursed her lips, crossing her arms across her chest.
“Rose,”
she responded in a sassy tone, “you seers should already know about her,
though. If any of you lot are worth anythin’.” Amy swallowed, and
glanced at the other women in The Sisterhood. The rest of them seemed to
understand, but she stood there, uncertain. She didn’t want them
finding out she didn’t exactly belong, but this Donna was seriously
getting close to blowing her cover. She needed to ask The Doctor about
her and soon because she was not about to inhale those vapors and turn
any more of herself into stone.
Part XVI – Rose Water
“Amy?”
Rory answered before unceremoniously being flung to the ground of the
TARDIS as The Doctor fiddled with something on the console. He let out a
noise somewhere between a yelp and a frustrated yell as The Doctor
shouted his apologies in the background.
“I need to talk to The Doctor,” Amy hissed immediately, voice barely above a whisper. Rory sighed.
“What no, ‘how are you doing Rory?’ or ‘I miss you’ or–” Amy growled.
“It’s
an emergency, but I love you stupid face, now let me talk to The
Doctor!” Rory smirked a little at the phone then before shouting to The
Doctor that Amy was on the phone.
“Busy!” He shouted back, rushing around the console and checking the monitor.
“Amy says NOW
,” Rory said, using his best intimidation voice and tapping his foot
impatiently. The Doctor glanced up from the console almost immediately
and flipped a few levers before grabbing the phone from Rory.
“Hello,
Pond,” The Doctor said brightly. Rory could hear slightly louder
whisper-yelling coming from the phone as his wife admonished The Doctor
for trying to put her off. He smirked and so did The Doctor as Amy very
nearly tore him a new one.
Amy got quiet again, and Rory couldn’t
quite hear what she was saying, but he watched curiously. The Doctor’s
smirk faded, his eyes got glassy and his face paled. Rory had only seen
him like that a handful of times and he could feel his heart rate speed
up. Amy was in trouble, he knew it. Amy was in trouble and they couldn’t
even land the TARDIS to help her.
When The Doctor finally spoke again, after a long moment of tortured silence, Rory was sweating.
“Rose…”
He whispered, moving his mouth as if it couldn’t quite fit around the
word. Rory raised his eyebrows, of all the things he expected The Doctor
to say, he wasn’t quite expecting that.
“Sh-she was…” He watched
The Doctor swallow hard and heard Amy demand he speak quicker from the
receiver. He swallowed again, moving the phone to his other ear and
trying very hard not to meet Rory’s gaze.
“Rose was…a friend…she
was like you and Rory she uh, she traveled with me a long time ago.” The
Doctor paused as Amy asked something else.
“Donna…” he said
softly, eyes glassy, “she traveled with me too.” Amy demanded he tell
her why Rose was so important. He turned his back to Rory then, voice
soft as he answered.
“She’s Rose,” he responded sounding almost heartbroken, “my Rose.”
Part XVII – I Wont Leave Her
“I
don’t mean to alarm you, Doc,” Jack began, walking close behind him on
the beach away from where they had parked the TARDIS, “but we’re running
out of time, that volcano is going to blow tomorrow morning and there’s
nothing we can do to stop it. We have mere hours to find Rose, figure
out what’s wrong with the TARDIS and get out of here.”
“You don’t
think I know that?” He asked grumpily, shoving his hands into the
pockets of his jacket, “The TARDIS wont budge and I can’t find Rose
without her. We all might very well die here.” He turned and locked eyes
with Jack in the darkness then.
“I know,” Jack said, acceptance in his tone.
“Good,”
The Doctor replied solemnly, “because I wont leave her.” Jack smiled
sadly at his statement and nodded even though The Doctor had already
turned away from him.
“I wont either, Doc,” Jack whispered.
Part XVIII – Water Pistol
“Nobody
here but us girls,” The Doctor said, looking pointedly at her and Donna
to let her know now was the time to escape while he was distracting
them. She watched him for a few more moments, not quite sure what
happened to make him change, but knowing now wasn’t the time to question
it. She grabbed Donna’s wrist then and tried to sneak out of the room,
but one of the sisterhood caught her other hand.
She tried to yank
it away, turning over her shoulder, ready to fight the woman off. But
when she turned, the look on the woman’s face stopped her. She
swallowed, letting go of Donna and staring at the woman’s sad
expression.
“Rose Tyler,” she whispered softly before letting her
eyes flick up to a very annoyed look on Donna’s face. The Doctor was
still talking to the sisterhood, keeping their attention while she and
Donna stood still, uncertain of what to do now they had been found out.
“Don’t
you want to know how I know your name?” the woman whispered, same sad
look on her face. She shook her head and let out a quiet breathy laugh.
“I’ve
seen what you lot can do, thanks,” Rose said, finally freeing her hand
from the woman’s tight grasp. This time the woman laughed softly.
“No,”
She said, peeling back her shawl and showing them that she barely
turned to stone, “I don’t have-” she made air quotes and Donna and Rose
exchanged confused glances-“the sight.”
“Then how are you here?”
She asked, gesturing at the sisterhood, “with them?” The woman sighed
and shook her head, glancing back over at where things had begun to go a
little pear shaped for The Doctor. The sisterhood was getting tired of
his antics and it looked like something bad was about to happen.
“Later,”
The woman said, fitting herself between Donna and Rose, “now we run.”
She grabbed both their hands and they ran out of the room, sparing one
last glance back at The Doctor, who defeated that creepy priestess with a
water pistol.
She and Donna both laughed in awe, eyes meeting as they exclaimed, “I bloody love him!”
Part XIX – Nine
“Okay,”
Rose said breathlessly when they stopped running just outside of the
city where it met the beach, “tell us who you are.” Amy stared at the
two women, lowering her hood and opening her mouth to speak just as the
ground rumbled beneath them. The three women flailed a bit, nearly
losing their balance.
When the tremor had passed, Amy opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by another voice with a heavy Northern accent.
“Rose?”
The voice asked, almost shocked. Rose turned towards the voice,
breaking out into a huge grin, her tongue stuck between her teeth. Amy
and Donna turned, narrowing their eyes at a man dressed in a letter
jacket over a jumper followed closely by a very attractive looking man
in a trench coat.
“Oh, Rose,” the man said, moving faster toward their group, arms stretched towards her. Donna spoke first.
“Oi!”
She said loudly, effectively stopping the man in his tracks, “and just
who do you think you are?” She stepped in front of Rose protectively and
ignored her noise of protest. Amy smirked.
“Who are you?” The man answered back, so much sass in his tone Amy couldn’t stop her smirk from growing wider.
“I
asked you first big ears,” Donna retorted, hands on his hips. The man
behind him sniggered, earning a glare from the man in leather.
“Oh,
big ears,” the man said sarcastically, gesturing wildly around him,
“Haven’t heard that one before, your wit astounds me.” Donna snorted.
“Tell
me,” Donna said, gesturing to the man’s ears, “can you fly with those
things?” This time Rose giggled from behind Donna, trying hard to muffle
the sound.
The man opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the man behind him in the trench coat.
“As
much as I’m enjoying this,” he said, stepping forward and taking
Donna’s hand, “We don’t have time for a sass off,” he brought Donna’s
knuckles to his lips, “Jack Harkness,” he said smoothly with a handsome
grin.
“Oh stop it,” the other man said, exasperated. Donna grinned at him, ignoring the other man’s annoyed glare.
“Donna Noble,” she responded.
“That
is a very lovely name, Donna Noble,” Jack said, wrinkling his nose a
bit and staring down at her wrist before releasing her hand, “A bit out
of the ordinary for Pompeii…” he trailed off, staring at her other arm
as if he was looking for something.
“Doctor…” He said, voice
tinged with worry. Amy glanced around then, looking for the man who she
saw moments ago with the water pistol, but he wasn’t there.
“I
know, Jack,” the man in leather responded, gazing at Donna with a
neutral expression on his face. Amy’s eyes widened in realization just
as her cell phone buzzed loudly against her hip.
to be continued
