So, I've got tongue-tied, in a figurative way. I've been working on this fanfic for Doctor Who for a good few months now, and a few nights ago, sat down and just popped this out. I've edited a few words here and there, but haven't done much more. I know where I want the story to go, but don't know how to take it from point A to Z without it being a story where Rose goes for a walk.
The episode is set during "Love and Monsters" in the second season, and features around the premise that the Doctor is having a bad day and is acting an all-around jerk to Rose. She decides to go for a walk to give him some space, and proceeds to meet this world's version of John Lumic, only here, he is an insane homeless man yelling about "the metal men."
Over the course of the fic, Rose befriends him as she realizes that no one believes him, and that his warnings shouldn't be written off as just senility. The final bit (spoiler in white:)
has Rose leaning over the dying Lumic and the Doctor coming up behind her and giving her a hug in apology for being a jerk. (end spoiler). So, how do I get to that point?
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CHAPTER ONE
Rose stared at the two buckets in front of her in the factory; one was red and the other was blue, both containing different liquids that smelled horrible, if not identical to the human nose. Of course, in this case as in all the other cases, it was not to her human nose that the scent mattered, but to the distinguishing nose of a certain Time Lord who would know the difference between two identical substances if ever presented with the opportunity to decipher them, which he was about to be. As she knelt down to pick up the bucket, at the same time trying to ignore the scent which she knew would permeate her hair, skin, and clothes for weeks, she noticed that someone had scribbled something with chalk on the concrete wall behind the buckets. She knelt forward to have a closer look at the hazy image made by a half-hazard hand that longed to be remembered, and felt a shudder go up her spine when she recognized it; her father was alive over there in the world where her mother had died. She ran her hand over the cool concrete to see if it was real, the smell from the buckets no longer nauseating her, when she heard the Doctor call her name. In a rush of confusion and haste she took one of the buckets without looking and ran to the sound of his voice…"I said 'red' not 'blue!' Humans! How hard is it to mix up two simple colors?" The Doctor whined from the console while pushing random buttons whose functions Rose had long ago given up learning. She was sure that whatever he was doing was important to someone somewhere, but at the moment, she couldn't care less. Instead, she was seated in the big chair by the console, first aid kit open, and dabbing her scrapes and bruises that had appeared during this latest adventure. She could see a few marks on the Doctor and wanted to help him out, as she usually did, but she was still too distracted to know what to do, what to think.
"Sorry." She had seen that symbol earlier today, the same symbol they had encountered on Pete's world, but she knew that now was not the time to bring it up, as the Doctor was deep into whatever he was doing. "I was distracted and grabbed the one. I thought you told me to-"
"Really Rose. Do they even teach you colors here on Earth?"
"It was a simple mistake. Anyways, we fixed it in the end."
"No. I fixed it." He stopped for the moment to stare at Rose and make his point clear before going back to pushing the buttons, oblivious to her presence in the room.
"Well excuse me then!"
"The red one contained a chemical that was a sedative to the Hoix…" Rose heard the Doctor yell down the corridor as she limped off to her bedroom, first aid kit in tow. While she usually felt as if she were the Doctor's equal, or at least the one person who came close to trying to understand him, today was one of many days where she felt more like his pet. And there were more and more days like this one on the TARDIS as of late. Ever since she had met Sarah Jane she felt like she was just another version of K-9; a human to keep the great Doctor company. Then, his meeting Madame du Pompadour only made these days worse. Now she had seen what kind of person he would fall in love with. She at least felt reassured with the knowledge that she and the Doctor had bonded a bit since then, patched up old wounds, but there was still something wrong between them. He had become more distant, and she had seen him making eyes at that Ida Scott back on that impossible planet orbiting that impossible black hole when he thought she wasn't looking. She humored herself that his reaction to the mortgage joke was just that, a joke, but during the last few days she thought it was more a fear of some sort of commitment showing itself. This only made her own feelings of inadequacy, mainly being the latest pet, even worse.
She opened the door to her room and flopped down on the bed, still hearing the Doctor mutter about all the problems with humanity from the console room. It seemed that the days she was most annoyed with him were the ones where he was perfectly audible wherever she retreated in the TARDIS, today of course was no exception. She should have just told him about the symbol, but at the same time, she figured it was just graffiti; something innocent some kid drew when he snuck into the factory.
Rose set aside the first aid kit and took the memory box out from under her bed, the box that hid her deepest secrets, some good and some bad. The one she was looking for in particular was a pamphlet she had stowed away after their trip to Pete's world - the advertisement for Cybus Industries. She pulled out various stacks of papers, bills, pictures, and finally found an envelope that contained the pamphlet and a few pictures of Mickey. She remembered that day too well; after she and the Doctor had departed she slinked off to her room and took out this same box, only to place the pictures of Mickey and this pamphlet in an old greeting card envelope from him. She had long since lost the card itself - it was some silly thing with a monkey wishing her a happy birthday, maybe Mickey had it - yet the envelope remained. The more she held it the more she realized that she could still smell the scent of the candles and the frosting on the cupcake that night. She closed her eyes and held the envelope to her nose when the TARDIS gave a sudden lurch.
"No! Not now, you ancient piece of secondhand scrap!" the Doctor's voice was clear despite the length of the corridor it had to travel. Rose's stomach lunged when the TARDIS made a second jerk in reaction to the Doctor's comment. It was one thing to be the Doctor's companion when he was having a bad day, and another thing to be his worn and battered ship. At least she could grab a bag and get away from him for a while; the poor ship was stuck with his sometimes violent repairs. Rose put the envelope in her pocket, saving it for later, and went to close the door to her bedroom. Just as she put her hand on the knob, the Doctor popped into the doorframe.
"Watch what you're doing there - I refuse to have some girl break my nose on something as trivial as a bedroom door!" the Doctor yelled as he pushed his way into Rose's room.
"Nice to see you too," Rose said, still standing with the doorknob in her hand. "I was in the middle of something."
"So was I. Have you seen that spare Sprachen-Heimel Double Titanium Coupling we picked up on the Moon of Raja 9?"
"You mean that slinky I was playing with?"
"Yes. That's the one."
"You sold it for a crate of bananas."
The Doctor walked away without saying anything to Rose, now muttering something under his voice that she was grateful for the TARDIS's refusal to translate for her. Gallifreyan was an eerie language, and even though she assumed the ship was protecting her from something horrible that she didn't want to even imagine, the sound of those foreign words spoken in his voice still sent chills down her spine. She closed the door, this time flicking the little latch just above the knob and sealing her privacy from him. This was a day she no longer wished to deal with time travel, or the Doctor, or the TARDIS, or anything. She just wanted time to herself. She picked up the box and was about to sit on her bed when the ship lurched again, this time throwing her hard against the door, knocking the wind out of her as she hit her head and left side against the door. She fell to the floor coughing, trying to regain her breath again.
"Rose? Rose! Are you alright? Rose?" The Doctor called from behind the locked door. "I'm opening your door Rose."
"No!" Rose coughed out a reply as she hear the sonic screwdriver start and stop, "I'll be fine." Even though she was grateful that he now showed concern, she was still angry with him. She at least wanted to regain some composure before he saw her like this. She sat against the door, listening to the footsteps and intangible vocables echo down the corridor. When she finally caught her breath and stood up, she noticed that the Doctor had gone back to the control room and was tinkering under the grating, a random limb popping up for a moment or two and a Gallifreyan curse word thrown into the air between. Rose took her coat and walked down to the console room; they must have landed as the rotor was still, and the faintest sound of air movement mixed with the Doctor's cursing under his breath were the only sounds of life other than her own. In her misery of recovering from the fall, she had missed his string of Gallifreyan swear words he was yelling on his way back to start repairs. When she arrived, she debated whether it was wise to announce her presence. He cursed again in Gallifreyan and she decided that he didn't need to know. She walked towards the door when she heard him mutter something.
"Rose? Don't go too far. I want you here when I'm finished."
"Okay."
"The TARDIS landed in London 2006, not my first choice of course, but she seems to like you better-"
"Prob'ly cause I don't hit her every time-"
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"Anyway, don't dilly-dally, I don't want to have to send UNIT after you - or worse, Jackie…" The Doctor went back to his all-important work under the grating. At least he was somewhat nicer than he was before, but he was still acting like a complete jerk. She walked through the doors and closed them, patting the TARDIS on the side for luck. She really did feel sorry for that ship on days like these.
"The men, the men, the cold and distant metal men! They're coming, and they're going to get us!" a homeless man shuffled about in the alleyway behind the TARDIS. "The men, the men, the metal men!" he continued as Rose tried to get her bearings before noticing a familiar shop nearby. The TARDIS was being nice when she did all she could to crash-land three blocks away from her mum's flat.
"The metal men are coming, and it's all because of you!" The man ran up and pushed Rose up against a wall and started sniffing her. He stank of stale whiskey, aged fish, and something she couldn't entirely identify, though it was metallic. She tried to push him away, but the harder she fought the harder he pushed back. "The men, the men, the cold and distant metal men!"
She tried to scream, tried to get the Doctor's attention, but it was of no use; she had all she could do to keep the man at bay. She closed her eyes as he breathed hot, putrid air in her face.
"All right Johnny, leave the nice lady alone," a stranger's voice said from nearby. She could hear the man pinning her to the wall whimper with fright. "Come over here Johnny, we'll make sure the metal men won't come tonight." And Rose could smell a new scent - one of soap and the slight acrid fragrance of gunpowder. She could feel the man moving away from her and someone else moving close to her.
"It's okay dearie," a woman said as she put her hand on Rose's arm. "He wouldn't hurt you."
Rose opened her eyes to see a pair of police officers standing with her and the homeless man now. "Are you alright?" the female officer holding her arm asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine."
"That's a nasty cut on your head there. Are you sure you're okay?"
Rose touched the bump that was now forming on the side of her head where she had previously hit it against the door in the TARDIS. "It's nothing, I'm fine really. I just -" And Rose stopped. How did she tell a police officer that she hit her head on the door of a space ship that also happened to travel through time?
"Okay then. Can we help you home?"
Rose looked over to the woman's partner who had now corralled the homeless man into the back of the vehicle. "I live just down the road and was out to buy some bread. I'm fine."
The female officer smiled. "Alright then dearie. If you need anything, here's my card."
"Thanks," Rose replied as she took the piece of paper from her. For the sake of her battered ego, she rested where she stood against the wall as she watched the police car pull away, with the crazy homeless man in the back. Funny, even today she felt for the man. He needed help. He needed someone to just listen to him. She closed her eyes for the briefest of moments to listen to the sounds of her London; it was the light flits of a Gallifreyan swearing on the air that pulled her back to reality. She opened her eyes and saw that beyond the TARDIS in the alleyway were hundreds of chalk marks, each depicting the mark of Cybus Industries. And it was that moment that Rose ran.
