Cracked Fairy Tales, Chapter 3 of 5

[indiana_j]

Title:  Cracked Fairy Tales (Chapter 3)
Fandom:  Doctor Who
Characters:  Rose, Nine, Ten, Jack, Romana, Donna, (Jack/Rose, Rose/Doctor, Jack/Rose/Doctor)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,146
Disclaimer:  Nothing in here belongs to me.  Alas
Summary:  Not every story is told in a straight line and sometimes one has to follow the bread crumbs in order to get back home.
A/N: Many thanks to bounce who took a look at the start and to deathpixie ,  who beta read this on her vacation. :D  This is a direct sequel to my story ‘Composed of Nows’ (linked to the last part because there are links to the first chapters from there) and the nugget of an idea in that story blossomed into this 10k+ story.  Ow, my brain. :D  And cross posted. 

Chapter One
Chapter Two

He had the human male - 51st century if he ever saw one - by the waist so he could yank him back and away from the girl. No easy feat, that, not with the way he was trying to get to her. "No touching!" the Doctor yelled straight into the other man's ear, the same words he'd spoken earlier but now for entirely different reasons. The girl was slumped over the TARDIS' controls while golden light shimmered around her. There were drums pounding a rhythm in his head and he could almost smell the power as it leaked out of her.

Something in him stirred lazily in response.

"How long's she been like this?" he demanded, forcing the other man to look at him, to focus.

"A few months but it was just the singing, never this light show. And always when she was sleeping." The man stared at him straight in the eyes. "Do you know what this is?"

If it looked the Time Vortex and felt like the Time Vortex, than it probably was the Time Vortex.

"Maybe," he admitted, releasing his grip just as the light pulled out and away from the blond. The Doctor straightened as she fell onto the floor but his attention wasn't on her for the moment. As the light coalesced away from her, he was torn between watching that and the fact that various buttons around the controls were suddenly flickering on.

Considering that pushing random buttons, glowing energy or no, was a bad idea with a fully-functioning TARDIS on a good day, it was doubly a bad idea to be doing it on one that had just barely escaped being eradicated along with everything else. The Doctor was two steps away from laying his hands on it when a voice from behind him nearly made both of his hearts stop in one go.

"This is Emergency Programme V100.1.6.89TimeWar."

He spun on his heel and stared, slack jawed, at the energy that had previously been pouring out of the girl at his feet. It had finally gained a figure - a flickering, golden image that stood directly in the shadow of the strange woman. He knew that face. He knew that voice.

"...Romana?" he whispered, hands twitching violently.

She wasn't looking at him, instead she was gazing around in some sort of wonderment. She looked worse for wear than the last time he'd seen her when she'd given him his marching orders - blood on her trousers, ripped shirt, half-dead even if she still had her feet under her. "Are you sure this will work?" she asked someone off the side and then shrugged at the unheard response. "Suppose in the end, it doesn't really matter, does it?" And then she straightened her shoulders as she faced the doors to the TARDIS.

"Doctor, if you're receiving this message, then it means I have not survived.  It probably means we have not survived." Romana paused and a smile flickered across her face. "It also means we won. I can only hope this works, that this girl -" Her gaze flickered off to the side and she stared at nothing for a moment. "That this Rose can deliver on her promise."

His jaw closed but the skin felt tight on his face and he was suddenly having trouble remembering how to breathe.

Rose.

Romana was looking straight ahead once more. "I am sorry, so sorry," she continued softly, her eyes shadowed with the pain a leader was forced to take upon themselves. "If there had been any other way, any other path, I would have chosen it. But we were losing. Bringing back the Master was a failure, the missing Time Lord technology - they were taking us down, Doctor, and the stars would have fallen with us. It might have been your actions that would bring about the end but it was my decision and I will stand by it."

She shook her head and sighed. "If our people are ultimately to survive, Doctor, then it is a burden you must carry alone and I can only imagine how heavy that must be for you. Don't do anything daft -" And there was the Romana he remembered. "- we need you now more than ever. Our voices may be stilled, our minds may be silent, but we will always be out there in you. You carry us with you, your actions will be our actions - for good or bad.  You are the last of the Time Lords and you are the legacy we leave behind."

And then Romana turned and looked right where he was standing, her smile as bright as a sun going supernova. "And Doctor, just remember ... you are not alone."

~~

Eventually

"I think you need a doctor."

His body had done this before, this impossible thing, and he considered that as good a reason as any to risk doing the impossible twice. The Doctor let himself drift for a moment, enjoying the feel of Rose's lips under his for the split second before the transfer started. But he was a Time Lord after all and a split second could feel like an eternity if he wanted it to.

And, oh, how he wanted it to.

Then it started, cascading through his veins and skin, soaking into his very DNA as he scooped the Time Vortex out of Rose Tyler's fragile human mind. Not that a Time Lord's more sophisticated mind would help much more than this but in the end, she wouldn't die. And he'd just ... change.

Again. He could live with that for her.

He lowered her gently to the floor and a memory flashed through his mind of another time, another Rose, before it escaped and was all but forgotten.

All of the Time Vortex was safely out of her now and in him...

All but one, tiny, important bit - out of time, out of mind as it slumbered. Waiting.

There was still time left.

~~

Then

The only thing Romana could feel anymore were Rose's fingers threading through her hair, pressed lightly against her head. Her actual body had long since faded and she could tell by the way Rose was shaking that what was left was being held together by sheer strength of will. Humans, she thought tiredly. She could see why the Doctor was so fascinated by them.

"Did it work?"

"Perhaps."

"Will he listen?"

Romana felt Rose smile in her mind and it was filled with sharp teeth and a gentle humor. "When does our Doctor ever? We must be ... persuasive."

The Time Lady sighed and her breath was stolen away by time. "Can I sleep now, my Valiant Child?" she wondered and felt Rose brush a burning kiss against her forehead.

"Rest, Madam President, for your people are waiting for you."