Chapter Text
Rose froze where she stood.
She... She hadn't expected… She hadn't imagined. Well she had, but still. He was here. It was wrong. Off. But he was here, right in front of her. She never imagined it would be this Doctor.
She had come across a few past versions of the Doctor in her travels and hadn't had much trouble avoiding him, had even watched him save the day from a distance a time or two. Once she had seen what she was almost certain was a younger Sarah Jane Smith. It had been nice, if bittersweet.
This was different. She had never expected to see this Doctor again. She had made peace with that, that this version of her Doctor was no more. The same but different, new. Having him suddenly just… there was- it was harder than she would have thought.
He was all tension and rough leather and didn't the sight of him just make her want to cry. He was sharp in a way she hadn’t ever been able to forget, like a bundle of glass shards and discomfort.
Rose caught her breathe sharply. He. She hadn't noticed before, hadn’t had anything to compare him to- he looked so… tired.
She couldn't do this- this wasn't home, not right now. This wasn't the time or place she needed to be even if the person was right. She realized she hadn’t said anything, just stood there, staring as he drew closer. She had to try to salvage this as best she could.
She took a step away from the Tardis, she needed to focus.
Maybe she could play it off?
"Excuse me, is it safe? What happened? I -I uh got turned around in the confusion and…"
This wasn't half bad as far as plausible excuses went but it felt bad in her mouth. Off. Her voice was high pitched from surprise and emotional turmoil and she sounded fragile, even to her own ears. Rose didn’t do fragile. She wasn’t a damsel in distress, not for long anyway. She was categorically against being helpless. It was embarrassing. She really really hoped he didn't recognize her, beyond the obvious reasons this would be a terrible second impression she was sure. She shifted on her feet desperately trying to avoid eye contact with the- this version of the Doctor, hoping that somehow it would make it harder for him to see through her.
This meant that she didn't see his reaction. She didn't see anything. Not until the sound of the Tardis door slamming made her jerk her head up. What.
She looked at Jack, utterly baffled. Had the Doctor… ignored her? She pushed past the jab of hurt at the idea. No, that didn’t make sense. Jack looked perturbed as well, his mouth was pursed and he stared at the closed Tardis door with intense concentration.
This was early on in her timeline with the Doctor, she knew that. She knew he was harsher and more fragile then. She knew that he didn't have the best manners, that he could be too blunt or abrupt for most to find personable sometimes, but she couldn't imagine a version of the Doctor who wouldn't stop to help someone in need.
Even if he hadn't recognized her as the girl he ushered out of a pre-exploded building he would have at the very least spent a moment making sure she hadn't been injured too badly.
She should feel relieved that he hadn't noticed her. This meant the timeline was intact, but still… She had a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something was terribly wrong. She just didn't know what.
"Jack,"
Rose asked cautiously, not sure if she should disturb him or not, but wanting answers if he had any.
"What're you thinking?"
He glanced at her in acknowledgement but didn’t say anything. Jack stepped forward so he stood directly in front of the Tardis and reached out his arm towards the handle.
"Jack!"
Rose hissed, appalled and a bit hypocritical. Just because something hinky was going on didn't mean they should go interfering all across the timeline. In fact, that sounds like just the sort of thing that would make things much much worse than they currently are.
Jack ignored her, further cementing his current place on the top of her shit list. He pushed on the handle. The door didn't budge.
"Ha,"
Jack snorted a little before turning back to Rose.
"The girl still has a bit of a grudge against me. See if she'll open for you?"
Rose rolled her eyes and stomped over. She really didn't think this was a good idea, but she was curious now. Questions upon questions were piling up and it looked like Jack was leading up to something. Plus she admitted to herself, she wanted to do better than Jack. She pushed on the door. Nothing happened. She frowned and pushed again, there wasn’t the slightest give. It was completely immobile.
She turned to Jack with a question in her eyes. Hesitant to speak this close to The Doctor, but not certain she should be.
He gestured to the door again. She looked at it. It was a door, a door to a place very precious to her, but just a door. She turned back to him and spread her arms questioningly.
Jack gestured towards the door, or more specifically, the edge of the door. It was left open a crack, the Doctor hadn't bothered to shut it all the way as he went past. She pressed on the door a third time, just to make sure. It was still as solid and immovable as it would be if it was latched and locked.
"That's… odd."
Jack snorted.
"Yeah, no kidding."
As they stood there the door creaked open a little further on it's own, just wide enough that they could probably peek through it if they tried. Slowly, Rose tried to push it again. Nothing. She tilted her head.
"Jack, how big would you say that grudge is?"
Jack paused audibly.
"Uh. Middling to Large. Probably higher than that Dragmire who thought I walked out on our apparent marriage bed. Why do you ask?"
"Would you say it's big enough that she would refuse entry to me too to keep you out?"
Jack hesitated.
"Jack?"
She turned away from the door, he rubbed the side of his face, frustrated.
"I don't know Rosie, I.. Maybe? I wouldn't think so until now."
Rose frowned, she wouldn't have thought so either. The old girl was picky but she had her favorites and Rose didn't think it was bragging to say that she was among those few. Something seemed… off. It tickled at the back of her mind. The Doctor ignoring them. Being unable to interact with the Tardis. The Tardis…
She had another though, she turned to Jack to confirm her suspicions.
"Jack, how does the door feel to you?"
She gestured him closer, he stepped forward, wary, like he thought the Tardis was going to bite him or something. How much of a grudge were they talking about here? The idea was absurd. How had that even happened? When could that have even happened? Had the Doctor found Jack again after she had disappeared? She’d have to ask later.
Jack touched the door and turned back to her, this time he was the one with the questioning look on his face.
"What did it feel like?"
"Um, like a door. Like it usually does?"
She huffed, blowing her bangs out of her face. She wished she had a hairtie.
"No, cause the Tardis always has this. I dunno. Warmth. Like a pulse, you can feel it through the door if you really pay attention. It's not there now."
She looked at Jack standing in front of the gap in the door. He very clearly had no idea what she was talking about.
“Have you really never felt it?”
Jack put some obvious thought into it but eventually shook his head no.
"She's just. I can't describe it much better. It's like.. You can feel that she's a living thing and right now you can't. "
Jack nodded, still uncomprehending, but willing to take her word for it. She was glad of that, though she wasn't sure how he could have lived in the Tardis for any amount of time without noticing how full of life she was. This situation was hard enough without being cross-examined at every opportunity. The joys of an actual job. Casual office sexism is a constant throughout the multiverse. Wasn’t that a depressing thought.
"She really doesn't like paradoxes, maybe with two of you here she's walled you off as well as me?"
Rose considered it and shook her head. It was feasible but something about that reasoning felt off.
"No, even if that was the case, younger me is gone now so there shouldn't be any paradoxes around, potential or otherwise."
Jack didn't seem very reassured by her.
"And even if that was the issue, we should still be able to feel her."
Jack nodded.
"Okay, so if we can’t 'feel' her, something else must be going on."
Rose acknowledged Jack's point with a hum, chewing her lip. He was right. Something else was going on, the pieces didn’t fit. The question was, what was it?
Rose stepped back from the Tardis. She'd had a moment to think and things weren't adding up. The Doctor had ignored them. Not just breezed by them, but practically stepped over her without even noticing she was there. That wasn't normal. Had anyone interacted with her since she had arrived? Jack was the immediate answer, but he seemed to be in the same situation as her. Whatever that was. Wasn’t it a little weird how absolutely no one had acknowledged her at all earlier, not even to give her a weird look when she was searching for the dimension hopper?
Sure, this was London, but that only made sense to a certain point. And now the Tardis was keeping them out and didn't feel like anything at all besides wood. Something was wrong. This wasn't just being stranded in her own past.
"I have a theory."
Jack made a noise of inquiry.
She looked down to the opening of the alleyway, she could see the reflection of the emergency response vehicle's lights from where they were parked down the street. That would work as well as anything. She gestured for Jack to follow her but reconsidered a moment later.
They paused at the mouth of the alley on her behest.
"Keep an eye on the Tardis, make sure we know if he leaves, I need to test something. Watch from here?"
She pulled a pleading expression when he seemed hesitant. He looked at her, suspicious but willing to trust that she knew what she was doing.
"Yeah sure, I need to find my gun anyway. Someone threw it into a dark alleyway."
He smirked gently, giving a teasing gentleness to the pointed question he didn’t ask. She rolled her eyes.
"Dunno what you want with that thing anyway, it's no sonic blaster."
It was nice. The banter. She hadn't realized how much she had missed it, maybe because she hadn't really expected to hear it again. At least not with Jack. Huh. She had to wonder. If Jack was here now, where had he been? She had assumed that at Satellite Five he had… But that clearly wasn't the case because he was here now.
She caught sight of someone setting up a barrier line, directing curious crowds away from the explosion. She made her way to the front, noting how the crowd didn't move for her at all, forcing her to take a slantwise path around them to reach the man.
"Hello, excuse me, my name is Rose and I work in that building. There's a man named Wilson, he might still be in there, you have to check."
The man said nothing. She felt guilty for using Wilson like this but she needed something he wouldn't be able to ignore. Besides, he had already been dead for awhile, in her timeline and this one.
"Excuse. Me. There is a man's life on the line. You can't just ignore me!"
The man said nothing and continued unfolding the barrier.
Rose took a breath. One last test to confirm her theory. She reached her hand out to touch the man's arm, a reasonable action, one obviously meant to draw his attention and nothing more.
The man didn't react. Her hand slid straight through him so that her arm looked like it had been half embedded in his.
Well. That confirmed it.
She slid her arm back quickly, disturbed by the image. She flexed her fingers curiously. They didn't feel any different. And the man hadn't suffered any ill effects either, as far as she could tell. He finished setting up the barrier and started shooing people back.
She returned to Jack quickly after that, picking her way through the crowd, careful not to cross anyone’s path. It didn’t hurt but it was uncomfortable. Something to be explored in a bit.
She found Jack crouched just inside the alley, hunched over and examining something. His long coat was pooling on the ground around his ankles, she bet if she startled him right now he'd trip over it. She decided not to. More important shit was happening, but it was a nice amusement.
"Jack, I figured something out. Well. I don't know what it is exactly but I think I have some ideas. Well. Like, one idea. And I don't really like it."
Fuck. She could have worded that better maybe. She was maybe more rattled than she wanted to admit. She mentally shrugged, there were things to address first.
Jack looked up and gave her a rather grim smile.
"Yeah, I've got some thoughts as well. I found my gun."
He angled himself so she could see his pistol as well his hand phasing through it.
"Well."
She took in the sight.
"Fuck I guess."
Jack barked out a laugh. He looked tired and grimly amused.
“It happens with people too.”
He looked more tired.
"That's not great."
To make things worse the Tardis door swung open and the Doctor came stomping out, waving his sonic screwdriver up and down with a look of determination on his face.
End Chapter