Through all this Time (a tenrose fanfic)

Leather Memories

I awoke to the sound of alarms. Which let me tell you, is not a good way to wake up when you're sleeping in what's supposedly one of the safest places in the world. My eyes snapped open, and I quickly took in the flashing red lights and new metal door to my room. I knew it would be locked.

Yet I still shook my legs out of the covers, treaded slowly across the cold ground, and tried the handle.

Locked.

I knew it.

It truly was the worst part about staying in the tardis. Unless she wanted to communicate with you, you had no way of getting information from her. Only the Doctor could do that.

So there I sat; cold, confused, and a bit afraid. My back was pressed flush to the wall, and I watched as the walls pulsed ominously with a soft reddish glow. What was going on?

"Hello...?" I called out tentatively; sure that no one would hear, and that I was alone. The sound of my voice echoed, and seemed to resonate back twice as loudly.

"What's going on!" I inquired to the open air.

Beep beep beep beep.
Beep beep beep beep.
Ayyyyieeeeeeeeeeeee.

Mechanical beeps seemed to come from the wall behind me, followed by the whir of what sounded like a computer fan.

"Activating special defense program 923."

I knew that voice. I knew it well, but I didn't think I would ever hear it again.

"Rose? Rose if you're hearing this, it means we're in trouble."

It was like some god-awful flashback. Memories swirled, and visions of beating upon the tardis door, screaming for her to take me back to the future and the unstoppable battle between the Doctor and the Daleks crowded my mind. I didn't need this right now. I didn't need to be reminded of him. The first Doctor I had known. The one I had chosen to travel with, and ultimately... Well, there was no other way to say it. I had fallen in love.

Before I knew it, the memories had taken a route down a dark path, and then there I was. Control room. Him. Me. The relief of having defeated the enemy and the desperation to get home to mum. And that look. That horrible look on his face.

It had been bittersweet. Full of anger and disgust for the monstrosities we had just encountered. And it had been full of pain too. He had been relieved. Relieved that we had defeated the daleks... But also I assume, that I was alright. There was something else in his gaze too, though I've never been able to quite figure out what it was.Though I don't really remember what went on once I'd looked into the heart of the tardis... I know it must have been intense, and I assume this mystery expression on his face must have had something to do with what went on in the time I can't remember.

But he had given me that look, and was rambling on and on like usual.

Something about a planet Barcelona. And how he wanted to take me there. And I loved him so much right then, focused on the words he was speaking about this beautiful place he wanted to take me so completely, that I didn't even notice when he stumbled, and his hands took on a weird orange glow.

And then the fire, and the lights, and the pain that flashed across his face before an expression of acceptance took its place. He accepted it, and that's when it happened.

Just as it had appeared, it was gone. And he was gone. And there was this stranger there in his place. The man was standing in the Doctor's clothes, and looking at me like he had, but it wasn't the Doctor. It wasn't my Doctor.

"Hello!" He had said cheerfully, in a friendly voice, and then had spouted some rubbish about new teeth.

And then that strange man had the nerve to mention Barcelona, like he had the right to take me there too.