What It Is And Isn't

Chapter 4

Gren arranged for them to get to the mental hospital on a bus. Rose wasn't fond of writing the bus, really, but sitting next to the Doctor in such an unsafe feeling environment was not as bad as riding alone. He was holding her hand and had their interlocked fingers rested on his knee as she looked out the window.

"So, Earth II," she said quietly, "Second verse, same as the first?" She grinned up at him.

He smiled back at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "Not quite. They're a bit more advanced here."

"Uh-huh, which is why we just walked out of a saloon."

He wrinkled his nose. "Well, even in your time there are people who continue to live in the past. It's completely normal. They're used to the things that they love from long ago and so they stay that way. Gren and his people just prefer a quiet, western lifestyle as opposed to the cities that are all around."

"I was teasing you," she said, watching him carefully. She hadn't been expecting that much of an explanation from him, and she was foolish to ever expect anything from him. It was nice to have things like that from him though, that affirmation that he wanted to let her in on what was going on.

After what felt like several hours but was really ten minutes, they arrived in a city that looked very much like Manhattan in New York. The Doctor told her that, of course, she didn't know what Manhattan looked like. When she told him that, his eyebrows shot up to his forehead and he promised to take her there as soon as possible. She giggled and rolled her eyes.

"Doctor, it's impossible for me to go everywhere. Wouldn't you much rather go somewhere that's far out in the universe?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Nah. You'll experience it all if I can help it."

He said it in such a blase manner that she felt herself choking on happy tears. She doubted him on many occasions, but when he said things like that, it was very hard to doubt him ever again. The Doctor continued holding her hand as they got off the bus and strolled through the city together. He point out key features, some replicated from cities from Earth, some brand new with innovative architecture. Rose pretended to be interested, but she really just liked letting his voice wash over her as she glanced around at beautiful glass structures.

"Yeah, so that's the mental hospital?" Rose jerked her chin towards a tall white building with three red slashes and a cross on it. "What do the slashes mean?"

"It's the official sign for 'the mind' in this era," he said happy she asked a question. "There's a brief stint in time where people write in slashes as shorthand, just because they're lazy. That dies out when they realize it's harder to teach children the slashes than letters and words, but some things stick. On the hospital, that seems to be one of them."

Rose nodded. "That's weird."

"Yeah," he agreed.

They walked straight into the hospital and a nurse cut them off on the pass immediately, holding a clipboard and peering down her nose at them. Her skin glowed in a very pink sort of way and Rose blinked at the shock of it but didn't let it show on her face. Instead, she smiled pleasantly and stepped forward before the Doctor could embarrass them and be rude.

"I'm Rose Tyler and this is the Doctor. Governor Gren sent us to interview a patient. Phillip?"

The woman blinked, clearly not expecting an intelligent response out of either of them. She opened and closed her mouth, and Rose saw that her teeth were sharp at the ends. She almost cringed but again, managed to hold it back.

"You... Governor Gren?" She narrowed her eyes and adjusted her nurse's cap. "Well, can you give me your credentials to prove that?"

Rose nodded. "Doctor, our credentials?" She said, tilting her chin in a dominant manner. He swallowed very hard and fished around in his jacket before handing her the psychic paper. She smiled and thought hard about what she wanted the nurse to see before handing her the paper.