The Doctor and The Nightingale {1}

rise of the cybermen 5.2

Rose had run off somewhere. The Doctor and Nova stepped into the Tardis where Mickey was waiting. Tate was missing so the two of them assumed he went off with Rose. "I told you to keep an eye on her" The Doctor scolded Mickey.

"She's all right" Mickey assured.

"She goes wandering off. Parallel world, it's like a gingerbread house. All those temptations calling out"

"Oh, so it's just Rose, then? Nothing out there to tempt me?"

"Well, I don't know, I can't worry about everything" The Doctor looked at the console. "If I could just get this thing to," He tried kicking it.

"Did that help?"

"Yes"

"Did that hurt?"

"Yes" The Doctor took a seat on the bench. He kicked his leg up and gripped onto his foot. "Ow"

______

Rose and Tate had found a bench overlooking the Thames. Zeppelin propellers thrummed above them. "Tate, is there anything you wished was different in a parallel world?" Rose wondered.

Tate mulled it over. "I wish my mother wasn't an alcoholic. I wish she hadn't driven my father away" Tears came to his eyes as he thought back to his childhood. "I was seven when dad decided to divorce my mum. She got so blackout drunk while he was at work. I remember the fight they had. He was so mad at her. The next morning, he was gone. Without word. Well, he left me a letter, but he never told my mom"

Rose listened intently to Tate as he continued on. "Then one night, when I was fourteen, my mum took it too far. She got drunk out of her mind again. I got home from school, and found bottles everywhere. I told my mum she had to stop, or she was going to lose me like she lost my father. Then she punched me. Hard. It gave me a black eye that lasted for a couple of weeks"

"Tate, I'm so sorry" Rose voiced sympathy for him. She placed a hand on his knee and rubbed at it comfortingly. "You shouldn't have gone through that. You or your father"

He gave Rose a weak smile. "What if here that stuff never happened? What if mum had been sober? What if dad had stuck around?" Just then, Rose's phone started beeping. Her old phone. She looked at it to see a message from the Cybus Network. Welcome! Free Trial Period. "What's going on?"

"My phone. It gave me a message about a free trial period and now it's playing some news report" Rose explained. A large Zeppelin was passing overhead. They both quirked up their heads to look at it. Something about the Zeppelin seemed so... dark and looming.

______

The Doctor and Nova sat together on the bench in the Tardis. Nova had her arms wrapped around one of his own, and her head rested on his shoulder.  "We're not meant to be here. The Tardis draws its power from the universe, but it's the wrong universe. It's like diesel in a petrol engine" The Doctor explained.

Mickey sat on the opposite side of Nova. "But I've seen it in comics. People go hopping from one alternative world to another. It's easy" 

"Not in the real world" Nova admitted. "It used to be easy. When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could hop between realities, home in time for tea"

The Doctor continued on. "Then they died, and took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind"

"Then how did we get here?" Mickey wondered.

The Doctor rubbed his face with his hand. "I don't know. Accident?" He suggested. "Should've been impossible. Now we're trapped" A little green light caught his attention. "What's that?"