Pompeii
Summary: What the bloody hell is wrong with Pompeii?Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who.
A/N: Yeah Hi. Well lots of Doctors and stuff.
Part I – Rose and her Doctor
“Right outside
those doors, Rose Tyler,” The Doctor said, drawing out her name in that
way that makes her smile, “is the beautiful lost city that is Pompeii.”
She smiled up at him, tongue touching teeth before bolting towards the
door and running out into the beautiful ancient city.
“Hope you
set an alarm for volcano day, doc,” Jack Harkness called out from behind
him and leaning against the railing of the TARDIS interrupting him
smiling and watching Rose marvel at the city from the open doorway of
the TARDIS. The Doctor turned to him and crossed his arms.
“I
think you’ll find we’re nowhere near that part of Pompeii’s history, I
wouldn’t put he—us in danger like that.” Jack turned and glanced at the
monitor, clicking his tongue before pushing himself off the railing to
move closer to the monitor, gripping it firmly and turning it around.
“Now maybe I don’t completely understand this ship of yours, doc, but this date looks very
familiar to me.” The Doctor’s brow furrowed as he walked up the grating
and towards the monitor Jack had turned towards him. He read the date
on the monitor and swallowed thickly.
“Rose,” he called towards
the doorway upon seeing the date, which was exactly one day before
volcano day. “Rose I seem to have miscalculated slightly,” he called as
he walked down the grating and towards the door where he could no longer
exactly see her.
He stuck his head outside the TARDIS, bracing his hands on either side of the wall around him.
“Rose?” he asked, glancing frantically around beach he had parked them on, “Rose!” he called again.
“Looks
like she’s gone exploring, doc,” Jack said, pressing some buttons on
the console. The Doctor wiped his hand down his face and sighed in
frustration before turning back to the Captain.
“What are you
doing?” he asked. Jack pressed a few buttons on his vortex manipulator
before looking The Doctor square in the eye.
“Setting an alarm for Volcano Day,” he responded before walking down the grating to the door, “now let’s go find Rose.”
Part II – Pond and Raggedy Man
“What do you mean I’m stuck in Pompeii?” Amy hissed into her phone. The Doctor sounded more than just a little distressed and apologetic.
“Not for long Amy, I promise we’ll come get you,” Rory piped up in the background.
“Yes,
yes. Amelia we will come to you straight away,” The Doctor responds,
“but the TARDIS can’t quite…well….land. It’s like she doesn’t…want to.
Something’s not quite right down there…” The Doctor finished quite
uncomfortably.
“What do you mean the TARDIS can’t land?” Amy growls.
“I said can’t quite land, Pond,” The Doctor corrected, “that doesn’t mean I can’t land her, it simply means it is going to be very difficult for me to land her.”
“What am I supposed to do until you can figure out how then?” Amy asks, hands on her hips, sounding extremely irritated.
“You’ll
think of something!” The Doctor says enthusiastically as he hangs up
the phone and Amy nearly screams in frustration as she shoves her mobile
back into her pocket. Then she notices, much to her dismay that a crowd
of people have begun to stare.
“What are you lot lookin’ at?” Amy
asks harshly, giving them her best ‘back off’ glare. The people quickly
continue what they’re doing and start back on their way. With the
exception of one, a woman cloaked in red that she can’t quite see
watching from afar.
“First thing’s first, new clothes,” Amy smirks and bounds off down the road of the Bazaar.
Part III – Spartacus & Spaceman
Donna glowered at the Spaceman who brought her here
to bloody Pompeii when he meant to take them to Rome. Imagine her
surprise when instead of the seven beautiful hills of Rome, she’s
greeted with the volcano Vesuvius and a day before the bloody thing is
going to erupt.
And now, to add insult to injury, as they tried to
return to the TARDIS to escape the inevitable fires of Pompeii, the
ship was (of course) missing.
“How do you lose a bloody spaceship,
spaceman,” Donna had whispered to him, voice shrill. He swallowed,
trying to remain as calm as possible as he had asked the shopkeeper
nearest to where they had parked the TARDIS what exactly had happened.
So
here they were, the Spartacus twins (apparently according to Caecilius)
trying to get back the TARDIS so they can escape. Caecilius seems wary
of The Doctor, Donna notes, especially when he reaches out and shakes
the man’s hand. Donna could very visibly see him tense, but it didn’t
make the man any less kind to them, other than the quip about them
looking alike.
“You know,” Donna begins, cutting off whatever The
Doctor was about to say, “you lot should really take a vacation
somewhere with no volcanoes,” she suggests. The Doctor clenches his jaw
and sends a sideways glance at her. She ignores him and continues
talking, bringing up volcanoes half a dozen times as he continues to
stare at her, practically seething.
“Donna,” he whispers, harshly,
pulling her to the side once she’s finally done with her long-winded
schpeel about vacations and volcanoes, “they don’t know that word yet.
People don’t really have a word for volcanoes until, well, tomorrow.”
Donna gapes at him before shutting her mouth with an audible click
crossing her arms.
Part IV – The Fucking TARDIS
He’s
walking through the Bazaar when he sees her parked behind a shady
merchant. He frowns slightly, almost ninety percent certain he parked
her much closer to the house he was currently residing in with his three
companions.
“Did you move yourself?” he asks the ship, stroking her exterior fondly before moving his hand to touch the handle on the door.
“Hey!”
The merchant shouts, “don’t touch the goods if you ain’t looking to
buy.” He purses his lips and very nearly laughs, ignoring the merchant
as he pulls out his TARDIS key and tries to unlock the door. It doesn’t
budge.
“Bugger,” he mutters under his breath, jimmying his key in
the lock a few more times she still doesn’t budge. He narrows his eyes.
“Odd…” he says, stepping back and trying something he hasn’t done since his last incarnation. He snaps his fingers. Nothing.
“Are you gonna buy that thing or not?” the merchant asks, irritated. He frowns and purses his lips.
“Alright,
mate,” he says, turning toward the merchant before asking, “how much?”
because he can’t very well leave his TARDIS there, no matter how bloody
stubborn she’s being.
Part V – Jack and Doc
“How many times have I told her not to wander off?” The Doctor asks Jack angrily, searching around for Rose on the streets of Pompeii.
“Does she ever listen?” Jack asks with a laugh. The Doctor shoots him a glare and Jack raises his hands in surrender.
“Rose!”
he calls out into the crowd of people, pushing through the swarm to get
to the thick of it. Maybe he would find her there.
“Rooose,” Jack
calls from behind him, cupping his hands over his mouth to amplify the
sound. The Doctor sighs as he bumps into several people who give him
dirty looks as he tries to look for his companion.
“Doctor?” he
hears someone ask near him and he turns quickly towards the sound, but
it isn’t wasn’t what he was expecting in the least. Instead of Rose, he
sees a woman with a white painted face and a red cloak talking into a
mobile phone.
He turns around and shoots a glance at Jack. That
wasn’t Rose. That was another time traveler. Which meant that…he
swallowed hard.
“Jack,” The Doctor said, voice shaking slightly.
The captain nodded his understanding and called out for Rose again, a
sense of urgency coming over both of them.
Part VI – Rose
She found the TARDIS parked near a merchant’s stall and she smiled softly. She had wandered
off like he always told her not to, but she couldn’t help it. There was
always an adventure to be had, especially in a long dead civilization.
“Oh,
Doctor,” she smiled, reaching out and touching the door to the TARDIS
for a moment before digging in her shirt to pull out the key and stuck
it into the lock.
At first, the key seemed to stick and Rose’s
forehead crinkled in confusion. Her TARDIS key never stuck, it was
special. She turned harder, feeling the key finally cave and the TARDIS
finally unlocking.
“Doctor?” she asked, sticking her head inside
the TARDIS before entering slowly when she didn’t see anyone waiting in
the console room.
“Jack?” she asked and the TARDIS’s lights
flickered in a warning. Rose stopped next to the console and bit her
bottom lip. Something felt very distinctly wrong about her being here.
However,
just as she was about to head for the door, she heard someone else
jimmying the lock and froze. The TARDIS’s lights flickered again, this
time with urgency and Rose felt fear rising up in her throat. Then, not
even a few moments later she was distinctly aware that the TARDIS was
being moved.
Part VII – The Sisterhood
The
Doctor said she would think of something and he was right. Almost
immediately she became a part of some kind of sisterhood of women who
could tell the future. Something wasn’t quite right about these women
and she was determined to find out what it was.
Thus, being a time
traveler with a super phone and also quite clever, she started making
very accurate predictions. Though, most of her predictions she
definitely had to ensure happened on her own, she did attract their
attention.
However, she wasn’t quite prepared for the extent this
“undercover” position would change her. She very nearly lost sight of
who she was due to the heavy consumption of the vapors that helped The
Sisterhood to see and make accurate predictions. That was until she saw
the familiar blue box in the bazaar (and after she reported it to the
sisterhood as part of a prophecy because hey, it’s written and she read
it so it had to happen, right?).
“Aren’t you a sight for sore
eyes?” she asked reaching out to touch the exterior of the time ship
fondly. However, before her fingers could barely graze the ship, the
door flung open and she heard two people conversing about Rome.
“What?”
she asked in a harsh whisper, flattening herself against the back of
the box as she tried to make out what they were saying. However, it was
to no avail. The only things she could make out was that it was The
Doctor and a woman called Donna. What the hell was going on here?
After
she could no longer hear their footsteps, she decided to make a run for
it and call her Doctor to figure out exactly what was happening in
Pompeii. Because now it seemed like so much more than just the TARDIS
acting up and the strange vapor that was making her ill and her skin
turn to stone. She really hoped The Doctor could fix that.
Part VIII – Stuck in the Wrong TARDIS
Rose
sat on the floor and chewed her lip. She reached into her pocket and
tried to pull out her mobile to call Jack and The Doctor to come figure
out what was going on, but she found that it was missing.
“Blimey,”
she whimpered, clutching her knees to her chest. Well, it wouldn’t take
long for him to figure out the TARDIS had been stolen anyways and he
would find her, wouldn’t he? He always did.
She didn’t know how
long they had been moving, but she was so grateful when it stopped. She
got up quickly and ran to the door to pull it open, but found that it
wouldn’t budge.
“What’s wrong?” Rose asked the TARDIS, pulling harder on the door and even trying to push a few times.
“Oh
my god I’m stuck,” she pounded on the door wildly, but it was no use.
No one would come, she wasn’t even sure anyone could hear her. She
sighed and swallowed, pressing her back to the door and sliding down
slowly.
She never thought she’d ever be stuck in the TARDIS alone
without at least The Doctor. And she especially never expected to feel
so afraid and unwelcome in a place she had begun to consider her second
home.
Part IX – Bad Wolf
“Doctor, she is
returning,” his companion said, her mother (who ended up tagging along
very much against his will, mind you) holding the poor girl up. He never
wanted her to get caught up in this Sisterhood thing but he needed to
know what was going on. And of course she had taken it upon herself to
help him solve the mystery.
However, he didn’t remember that his
younger self and Donna had been here too. Why couldn’t he remember that
he and Donna had come here? The only thing he remembered about Pompeii
and volcanoes was something Jack had said years and years ago now.
Wait
did she just say “she is returning”? He snaps his head back to his
companion who is now looking quite a bit worse for wear. He thinks he
knows who she means. He knows he sees her again, right before he
regenerates into his previous form. And if he’s travelling with Donna
now he knows that it shouldn’t be too far off in his younger self’s
future.
Why didn’t he remember her telling his younger self this?
Then, as if to answer his question, the doors to his younger self’s
TARDIS rattled from the inside.
Both Doctors and Donna turned to
look at the blue box wide eyed. The door rattled again and then someone
pounded on it repeatedly before a familiar voice uttered several
unsavory words. Okay, he definitely didn’t remember this happening.
His
younger self turned to him, brown eyes wide in disbelief and he stared
back. He tried his best to compose himself and act like he didn’t know
what was going on. But a second later when she emerged all pink and
yellow screaming curses at the TARDIS he couldn’t help himself.
“Rose?”
He breathed out at the exact same time his other self did and then they
looked back at each other, realization flashing in his younger self’s
eyes. Rose blinked a few times, shutting the door to the TARDIS behind
her.
“Who are you then?” She asked. He swallowed thickly, eyes
still locked with his younger self. Donna blinked at the blonde girl a
few times and cleared her throat.
“You look really young,” she remarked and Rose stared at her.
“Am I missing something?” she asked, hands bunching up the bottom of her hoodie nervously, “how does everyone know me?”
“Who
did you come here with?” He asked suddenly, turning back to the pink
and yellow human and away from his younger self. She stared at him in
disbelief for a moment.
“No,” she said, all sass as she crosses her arms, “you don’t get to ask questions. Who the hell are you?”
“Rose
Tyler,” his younger self admonished playfully, his tongue peeking out
between his teeth in the way she always did, “such colorful language.”
He
heard her breath catching in her throat as she stared at the younger
man. Then she turned and looked at Donna and back to him.
“Oh my god,” she said before turning and taking off out of the house and back onto the street.
Part X – DOCTOR!
“Doctor!”
She screamed until her voice was hoarse, tears stinging in her eyes
from frustration. Oh god what if he couldn’t find her. She couldn’t cope
with the weirdness that was happening right now. She wasn’t even sure
what happened back there in that house, but she was terrified.
“Doctor!”
she screamed once more, tasting blood in her throat from the exertion.
If only her mum were here then maybe she’d have a better chance of
getting his attention. Her mum could probably be heard across the whole
of Pompeii.
“Rose?” She heard someone ask from behind her and she whirled around to see the brown haired man from the house.
“Who are you?” She asked, backing up as he came towards her.
“Doctor!” She screamed behind her into the darkness as the unfamiliar man continued to advance on her.
“Spaceman!”
The red head called from behind him, running up and grabbing onto his
arm forcefully. He stopped advancing on her then and just stared at her,
eyes full of sadness and something else. Something that frightened her
much more than the weight of sorrow in his eyes. He was gazing at her
with love.
“Doctor?” She whispered then, taking a few
tentative steps towards the stranger and his red headed companion. It
was then that she noticed his clothing. Who else could wear a completely
out of place suit with chucks and belong so completely to the
landscape?
“Rose,” he whispered with a soft sad smile.
“What
happened?” She asked, visibly frightened as she looked him over, “Why
are you different? Are you a clone?…how do you know me!” Donna looked at
him, startled.
“Changed, Doctor?” she asked curiously, but he ignored her.
“Rose…” he said carefully, “we need to find The Doctor and get you out of this time before it’s way too late.”
“What?” She asked, mind spinning in circles. She was so confused.
“I thought you were The Doctor,” she whispered, backing away again.
“Rose,” he said, voice tinged with warning as she was just about to start running again. She stopped and stared at him.
“Where’s the TARDIS?” he asked and she narrowed her eyes.
“If you’re The Doctor, shouldn’t you know?” She growled at him before turning on her heel and taking off into the darkness.
Part XI – Volcano Day
“Amy, come in Amy,” The Doctor shouted into the telephone and Amy held it away from her ear and glared at it.
“Doctor I can bloody hear you,” she hissed into the receiver, “I called you, remember?”
“Ah, yes,” he said and she could practically hear his brow crinkling, “why is that?”
“Any
chance you can land the TARDIS right now and rescue me from another
month of slumming it in Pompeii?” She asked hopefully and he was silent.
She sighed and pursed her lips.
“Thought so,” she continued, “but
that’s not exactly why I called, Doctor.” He was still silent so she
kept going, “you see, there seems to be another TARDIS here and I was
thinking that maybe that’s why you couldn’t em…quite land.”
“What?”
He asked, confusion evident in his tone, “another TARDIS? Nonsense,
this old girl would never take us somewhere that I’ve been in the past
or the future. She takes careful consideration to make certain time
lines never cross. My other self being there is impossible.” Amy clicked
her tongue.
“Yeah, yeah Doctor,” Amy growled into the phone, “you
always say that and in the end you’re always wrong and the impossible
does happen and you eat your stupid words. I mean if not you then how
else would there be another blue police box in Pompeii?”
tbc