tampered | Log ongoing; closed

Log ongoing; closed

When; Oct 8
Rating; PG-13 at the most
Characters; Rose Tyler, The Doctor
Summary; Rose ends up with 'Last Man Standing' curse while the Doctor ends up with Nightmares the next day. It's all a wreck.
Log;

When Rose woke up that morning, the City was a deserted ruin. When faced with an apocalypse, or if you're Rose Tyler, the first order of business is always to find the Doctor. She checks City Solutions, the ship where they get chips then Donna's flat followed by Amy and Rory's as well as the TARDIS'. When all of those come up empty, Rose begins to get worried. By afternoon she's panicked, having searched the City over. Come evening, she's a wreck and that's when her device decides to start broadcasting. She's in tears, tracks of mascara on her cheeks. It's like losing him at Canary Wharf all over again but somehow this is worse. She's losing everything she could have had with him that she never even imagined she'd get before.

“I need you back. Please. Doctor please, find me.”

She sits on a bench for a moment, giving into the absolute wreck of a girl she is inside then wipes at her cheeks with the heels of her hands, takes a deep breath and stands up. Rose Tyler doesn't wait for the Doctor to find her. She finds him.

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'We'll know in a few minutes judging by the sound of it.'

Actually, knowing she's on her way back makes it slightly more difficult to concentrate, but when has that been any different? It'll really only be important if she comes back and still isn't there, and even if she does, it isn't as though this isn't something he's going to keep in his room and continue working on in the off-chance it happens again for real. There's no need to have either one of them continue running about the City in pocket dimensions or anything of the sort, and in the meantime it might help him learn something about how this place operates. Actually it's probably going to be quite useful after all the anxiety has dissipated.

Stairs because at least she's doing something active to get back to him instead of waiting for a lift but by the time she flings open the door, she's entirely out of breath and disheveled. Also, she doesn't miss that he answers her 'is everything okay' with the implication that it will be if she's back. She's learned to look for little things like that in the things he does say.

"Doctor," It's said breathless, hopeful and more than a bit scared because what if he's not there?

It's probably a good thing she's so good at picking up on all the nuances and subtleties in his words since he so rarely comes out and actually says anything bluntly enough for the casual listener. But she knows that by now anyway.

Waiting on her to show up takes so much longer than he feels anything has an honest right to, but it's so totally worth it when he actually hears the door bang open. He stands up so fast the chair falls over and turns the corner to see her. 'Rose.' And a shout couple of long steps and there is a great big swinging you about a bit kind of hug happening.

"Doctor!" She wraps her arms tightly around him, burying the face in his shoulder and the curve of his neck. She's crying but she's also smiling. "You're here. You're really here. I thought I'd got lost again." Because she won't ever say that he left her behind because he didn't, not on purpose.

She's not going to let go of him anytime soon.

Not yet, at least. He sort of considers leaving her with the human version to be leaving her on purpose, even though it was also what he thought was the best decision at the time. But he's not ever going to make that mistake again. It was too difficult the first time and he doubts he'd have the willpower for a second. That's also going to be a fun conversation still.

'Me too.' Really that's good because he doesn't want to put her down or let go either. 'Glad you didn't; that was going to be hard to work out.' Which was supposed to be kind of oh, ha ha but personally feels a little too close now that he's said it. He compensates with an extra squeeze.

Such a fun conversation. Can you hear the sarcasm? At least he'll win points if he can convince her he's never going to make that mistake again.

She's going to facilitate that not putting her down thing by wrapping her legs around his waist and continuing to just hold on. They probably look ridiculous. Rose doesn't really care. "Yeah, but I woulda busted through and found you."

Because Rose isn't the girl who waits. She's the girl who goes after the Doctor.

He can do that. Hopefully. He'll need the points at that particular moment in time anyway.

Well that does make it a bit easier to hold her up. Not that he was particularly having a problem before, but even still. 'Course you would. You're brilliant, Rose Tyler.' And he loves standing here in the doorway, covered in Rose, but holding someone up you can't really do anything else with them, so after a few seconds he walks over to the hammock thing with her and sort of falls sideways and backwards into it. There's not really any contact lost, just a little more freedom to move about.

The falling into the hammock gets a bit of a sniffley giggle out of her and she untangles her legs just long enough to stretch out along the length of his body. Now that it's over and she's here with him, all the strength she was using to stand up straight just sort of leaves. She relaxes against him, face still buried against his shoulder and neck.

There's probably not a great deal of her skin touching his but maybe her cheek against his jaw or neck but if he's getting any feelings off her it is a rush of relief, gratitude and so much love that it's nearly overwhelming even to her. "I missed you."

What she means is she missed being able to touch him and hug him and have him next to her like this. It's enough just to have his voice anymore or to see him. She's thoroughly spoiled now.

Well if it's overwhelming to her even, he's probably going to be super effected by it, which you seemed to insinuate. There's some deep breathing and some swallowing around lumps in throats before he manages to reply. 'Missed you too. Set yourself a new standard for ignoring the "Don't Wander Off" rule. I'm starting to wonder if you understand the very basic meaning of the words.'

Given that she's so close anyway it seems like it would be a shame to not turn his head and kiss her temple or cheek or whatever's at the correct face level right now, so he does, and then settles into her and the hammock a bit more.

Yeah, pretty overwhelming. She just lost him and got him back again. It feels like Bad Wolf Bay minus the leaving. She grins a little at his words. "Pretty sure I got 'em. Always wander off in search of the Doctor, saving the Doctor or finding the Doctor. In the rare case you get lost, don't worry, it'll give the Doctor something to do while he finds you."

She takes a deep breath and shifts just a little so that her head is more on his chest than before, listening to his hearts beat.

He laughs. 'Well, I suppose that's not too far off, given the history. Thank you for taking my personal boredom into such constant consideration.'

They're actually probably quite steady and relaxed right now, despite all the recent emotions-things happening. There's all that relief and quiet glee at getting her back and the tiredness from before any of this started, mixed in with the feelings coming from her and cuddling and such - it's actually on the relaxing side at this point. Though, that could just be a reaction to the overwhelming aspect of things. Get too much input, get sleepy.

"You're welcome. It's what you love 'bout me." The words aren't really intentional. They just sort of slip out with a bit of sleepy laughter.

Very relaxing and all that stress, all those emotions are very good for making one sleepy. She'll close her eyes, snuggling up close to him.

She's definitely right whether she meant to say it or not, although his best response is really just a little bit of nodding. More of the reaction is internal than anything.

He really doesn't want to sleep; he wants to lie here and enjoy the fact that she's here, still, now, and not stuck somewhere else, again, but it doesn't take very long for his eyes to drift closed as well.

And thanks to the universe deciding it actually doesn't feel like being this nice, instantly upon hitting the first level of unconsciousness there are all sorts of the things he usually hides away and doesn't think about. Given the proximity to nearly losing her again, that one is pretty near the top for recurrence's sake, although there are other people he lost or who left him mixed in, whether in memories that actually happened or reconstructed events. It very quickly makes for very disturbed and restless sleep.

She'll accept the nodding as confirmation of love. It's the little things, remember?

It's not long until she's soundly asleep as well. The restlessness is rewarded with some sleeping shushing, maybe a murmured 'M'right here' and some more snuggling, arm stretching across his body that might, in the right kind of dream, be interpreted as someone attempting to stop him from getting to or saving or helping. In any case, she's sleeping soundly enough that she doesn't wake up.

Her attempts do settle things down for a couple of minutes but it's quite quickly that they return to their previous disturbed state. He turns toward her a bit more and pulls her a little closer even though for the most part the dream is still convinced that she isn't there - just image after image of her disappearing, actually falling into the Void, being trapped in an alternate version of the City forever without even anyone else to talk to in person, or flat out dying in any one of the various manners it got so close to happening. Mix in a little bit of orange skies on fire to break up the monotony, and he's probably mumbling or outright speaking aloud in a relatively steady stream. Lots of no's and various emissions of her name in general among other mumblings, with furrowed brow and faster breathing.

At first she snuggles in closer, shushing and reassuring him sleepily. As his mumblings get more urgent and his breathing gets faster, she slowly wakes up. She's bleary and still sleep-confused about what's going on but she puts one hand on his shoulder and one in the middle of his chest, shaking him lightly.

"Doctor, wake up. Come on, it's Rose. I'm right here." And then a bit more urgently. "Doctor, wake up."

Edited 2011-10-08 03:17 (UTC)

It takes a few seconds to disengage from the dreams entirely, but when it does happen it's nearly directly after her more urgent insistence and with a sharp inhalation. He blinks several times and looks over at her for a moment and then just up at the ceiling, slowing the breathing and such back down. 'Bad dream. Thank you.' Maybe she isn't totally awake and they'll both just go back to sleep.

No such luck, Doctor. She's sleep deprived but not to the extent he is and concern about him keeps her awake. She's giving him that worried face, brows pulled together. She runs her fingers up over his cheek and into his hair.

"Might help if you talk 'bout it. You were sayin' my name and no a good bit."

He is entirely dubious of her idea about talking about it. He opens his mouth to say that he isn't sure he feels like talking about it until she gets her fingers on his cheek and then up in his hair. That's relaxing still. He starts to talk again and then pauses. Sigh. 'Really, it's just... Nightmares. They happen a lot.'

That makes her frown but she keeps gently running her fingers through his hair as he talks.

"A lot? Is that why you haven't been sleepin'?" She thought it was just his sleep patterns. "I could've kept you company."

Not that having her here helped this time.

Oh, fff. Dammit. Be more careful with your words. Hadn't meant to say that they happened a lot... He sighs again and then replies. 'We--, ...n-not all the time. I don't have them all the time. But...' He glances back over at her and realises he can't really lie to her when she just saw it. Great. 'It's fine. I mean, yes, that's why, but I'm fine. I don't need a lot of sleep.'

Rose props herself up a bit, watching him carefully. She smooths one hand over his chest, her other hand resting in his hair. She still has her worried face on.

"We'll start havin' a nap here every few days, me and you, yeah? I can wake you up from nightmares and we'll both get a bit of sleep."

He shifts his attention from the ceiling to her and watches her adjust her positions and closes his eyes when she smooths over his chest, inhaling deeply and then letting it out all in a rush. 'No, it's fine. Really. I don't want, you to get...' Wrapped up in it. Or really even know that it's happening, that would have been better. Something like that.

"Doctor, it's not like goin' to sleep with you as a pillow's a hardship."

It's said with a teasing smirk but it's just barely covering the concern. She knows he won't stand for it if she makes it about her being worried about him. The only way she's got a chance is if she makes it about her.

That earns her a thin-lipped smile in return. 'I've been told I make rather boney pillows,' he says, with a small amount of amusement, mostly covering up the waking up he's still doing and the calming down that's still happening. 'I'm used to having them; you don't have to go through that bother for just some old dreams.'

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...I wonder if he has two of those shirts now since she technically got it in the parallel

No he has one shirt like that and so does she :D

of course. that makes so much more sense.

Slowly she'll end up wearing all his shirts at some point

rosey shirts! yay! at some point he will try one of hers on to make her laugh.

And she will, so much.

he'll stretch it out so much but ask if it's 'his colour'.

And she'll just laugh and tell him yes. He should always wear pink

cinna would probably say differently. also not sure how to nightmare but we can mess with it?

Messing with it is good. I figure we let him get really into this one before waking?

sounds fine to me.

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