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rabid1stACK...Chapter 22 was too long for one post...so here is part 2 of part 22...
...does that make this Part 23? Maybe! But I think of this as one, obviously wordy, chapter.
GO HERE FIRST...before reading on and read the beginning of the chapter...you need it to know what's happened there...before you will understand what's happening here...
Now...begins the overkill of warnings...all who pass this point beware...
STOP!!
DO NOT START READING UNTIL YOU'VE READ THE FIRST HALF OF CHAPTER 22
Read Part ONE and then come back to this part...
He glanced up and, flashing an impudent grin, caroled, “Hello!”
Rose would have called him something nasty, if he hadn't been shimmering. All along his chest and back, the mantle of arousal bristled. The moving tapestry of desire never failed to mesmerize her. And for so long, she'd been blind to it. In the beginning, everything had happened so fast and this display had been hidden under layers of clothing. The Doctor's arousal had manifested for her as a hundred needle sharp darts firing neurotoxins into her skin. Her earliest experiences with this mantling phenomenon had been brief shots of pain, followed by the drugged haze of his aphrodisiac. But now, she could see all of his sexual arousal signs. He'd learned to trust her, and himself. And she'd learned to see him as he was--alien, but extraordinarily beautiful in full mating display.
He was like an anemone, her Doctor. Most like that, she supposed, with his venomous darts bristling. Stray ions, dust particles in the air, even her pheromones, acted like ocean currents might on the tiny hair-like projections. In the presence of his true companion, the Doctor's cnidocytes danced. They stirred and swayed, creating intricate and beautiful patterns. The specialized cells she'd once thought of as a random collection of goosebumps or prickly little harpoons, Rose now thought of as enticing. This display was for her alone, his life mate. If she blew on his skin, or even thought about touching him, he responded. His skin rippled and, as he'd showed her via the TARDIS photo lab, also emitted colors and other high spectrum energies. He let her hear the music via their telepathic link.
And then there was his sex.
Her gaze was inexorably drawn to it as he stepped free of his trousers. It had blooming open a bit and the sight set Rose's mouth watering. She licked her lips, slowly, seductively; thrilled when his display changed. The pleasure he could give her in full flower surpassed even the wonders of their mental union. But, she knew better than to rush this. She approached him cautiously. He hadn't been exaggerating about how dangerous this was. His kind mated violently. Gallifreyan males were a stealthy lot. After enticing a partner in with an arousal display, they were programmed to tackle her, striking without warning. A Gallifreyan female, injected with neurotoxin was still strong enough to respond or recoil, depending on her level of psychic compatibility with her would-be mate.
But, naked and telepathically defenseless, a human female stood no chance. If the Doctor hit her with even a fraction of the toxic load he would use on one of his own kind, Rose would be comatose for a week. Mutual physical pleasure depended on the dance, on Rose being his true companion. She needed to commune with him psychically, let him know she was prepared to accept him. And she could do that now. The connection was strong enough, she was strong enough. Which meant he was free to display for her, free to experience his full sexuality. He held a hand up, palm out, facing her and she mirrored him. They touched at the fingertips, then at the palm, still standing two arm's lengths apart.
His eyes glittered like cut crystal as they focused on hers. She stroked him with her mind, drawing imaginary fingers along his shoulders, and down across his chest. The skin there swirled and the Doctor sent a resonating hum into her head. He continued to sing, even as he hissed his next breath through clenched teeth. Rose hummed, too, and watched him fight off the urge to put her down.
His mouth opened and closed, but he had no words for what he wanted. He flashed her the impression of it and her nipples hardened even more, throbbing in anticipation. Catching and holding his gaze, she very slowly shifted her fingers, sliding them against, and then inbetween his. When she tightened her grip, he broke eye contact, head tipping back as he groaned. Rose glanced down and saw he was ready for her. She tugged him forward as she sank onto the end of the bed.
You're so beautiful. she told him again, mind to mind. “Perfect,” she said, softly popping her p and t. Her exhalation curled around his orchid-like member, stimulating it to full bloom.
It reached for her lips, depositing a feather-light kiss with its delicate petals. Sighing, she closed her eyes and opened her mouth, surrounding her Doctor in the moist heat he craved. Invited to explore, he touched her ear, caressed her throat and fluttered over her eyelids. When the thousands of little tongues started to vibrate, the singing in her head became a chorus, urging her to lie back on the bed. She settled into a completely receptive position, knees up, heels braced wide as she relaxed onto her bent elbows.
His first pass over her belly went all the way down, into the slick valley between her legs. The surge of bliss nearly stopped her heart. She gasped as it slammed into her ribcage and cried out before she could stop herself. A moment later she thought she heard an answering call from just outside the room door.
The door was only partially closed and under any other circumstance Rose would have investigated such a noise. But her current state of psychic overload left her very little synaptic leeway to harbor suspicions. Her brain was busy cataloging a deluge of alien sensations. Lit up inside, blood and bone on fire, she could only pray for reference points for most of the incoming sensory data. Delicious tremors zigzagged through her. She could see the radio waves and microwaves in the air around her. Sound had texture. That was him, she knew, his senses overlapping hers.
Rose had never used drugs but she imagined tripping on something wildly hallucinogenic must feel this way. She could taste the Doctor's thoughts. Her nervous system had no means to process his feelings and impressions. It had red-lined at the outer limits of pleasure, one chemical reaction short of a meltdown.
And then, the Doctor kissed her.
It was a sweet, simple kiss, but the touch helped her orient on him, on what he was doing above her. His mouth was wondrously compliant, adapting to her purely human need for a physical connection. Lips, soft on hers, brought back an awareness of her body. Tender kisses, coming one after another, awakened her to a shivering need. She needed to arch under him, press into him. Oh, she wanted to fuck him, now. She wanted a hard, slick ride and knew he wanted one, too. A sweet pang coiled around her heart. Her abdominal muscles tensed taut enough to quiver. And it became crystal clear that no matter how alien, how cerebral, this encounter seemed, it was still sex. They both panted and shuddered and Rose came.
Mind-to-mind, he absorbed her climax, making it his. But something was blocking him from his own release. Rose pressed for the reason and caught a glimpse of a swirling void, but he shunted the image away from her. She scraped her nails down his spine, opened her mind to him and encouraged him to give in to the avalanche of sensations bombarding them both. She wanted him to come for her, chanted for it in his head: Go on. Go on. Jump. Fall. Love, mine, let me catch you.
With a mindless growl, he rose to his knees above her. His fingers locked around her wrists and he dragged her hands up over her head. Then, he shifted his legs, straddling her hips. The straddling no longer seemed wrong to her, it was so very right. Everything they did together felt perfectly natural to her. He wanted to hold onto her, needed that. He needed to make it perfectly obvious she was his. No enemy, no rival, could claim her or steal her from him, because they were one mind, one form.
They caught and kept a rhythm, rocking the bed until its springs squeaked. She pushed him to climax, shoving him into the bright sun at the center of her mind. When he came, when the white light of his soul rocketed through her, Rose rode with him all the way down into the black. They slumped into one another, their bodies curling into a yin and yang circle.
Lying content in the Doctor's arms, Rose waited for her heart rate to slow. She drifted towards sleep, listening to the repetitive sound of the Doctor's breathing, happy he'd found rest. In the distance, she could hear traffic racing along the highway. Nearby, there were muted voices, but it was still too quiet. It took her a moment to realize what was missing. There was no satisfied hum from the walls of her room, no TARDIS to tuck reality in around them and bid them sweet dreams.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Are you sure you'll be alright while I'm gone?” Rose murmured, cutting her glance toward the living room, where her mother sat watching Coronation Street. “My mum's still acting odd. No bickering. No yelling. I don't want to leave her alone.”
“She won't be alone, will she? I'm here. And Sarah Jane is expecting you.”
“You could go,” Rose suggested, half-heartedly. “Give her my regards.”
Her marked lack of enthusiasm for this plan, told him he had chosen the right bait to remove her from the house. “Oh, I don't think I could.” He swept a hand across his nape, peering up at her, as he said, “All those...memories.”
Rose sighed, knowing he was right. She wasn't jealous of Sarah Jane anymore. They'd become fast friends. But it wouldn't be fair to thank the poor woman for her help by reminding her of the past. She'd finally given up on waiting and had started rebuilding her life. A visit from the Doctor was the last thing she needed at this juncture. Rose's worried frown showed the extent of her internal conflict. She didn't want to upset her new friend, but she wasn't sure she should leave her mother with the Doctor.
“You won't wander off?”
He shot her an exasperated glare. “I'm not a toddler,” he said, testily. “I can get by for a few hours without adult supervision.”
“My Mrs. Phathiakulkwedia senses are tingling,” Rose muttered, narrowing her eyes at him. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“By sending you to see Sarah Jane?” he asked, hitting a falsetto note, which nearly confirmed her suspicions. “She called you, didn't she? I'm only suggesting it would do you good to see the old girl. Swap stories, imbibe a spot of tea...”
“It's just not like you to be so considerate.”
He could sense the wheels turning in her head. But her attention drifted again to her mother and, as it did, he made a conscious effort to influence her subconsciously. “We'll be fine,” he said, softly pressing on her mind. “As long as there are no alien invasions or half-off sales at Primark we'll stay right here, making toast and watching telly. You just toddle off to your girl's day out.”
Rose nodded, abruptly reaching her decision. “Don't try to fix the toaster,” she said, stepping forward and going up on tiptoes to kiss him. “The top settings are supposed to burn the toast.”
“And I imagine it was purposely engineered to make the upper left quadrant of a slice dark brown whilst leaving the lower half completely untoasted?”
“Yes, that's how we humans like our toast,” Rose told him, flatly.
“You rotate your bread, one quarter turn,” he accused, following her from the room. “You pop it up, turn it forty-five degrees and restart the toaster. I've seen you. Do you have any idea how many creative hours are being lost to the human race if everyone does that? Art, invention, peace initiatives, all of that bountiful, beautiful energy...simply...squandered,” he sputtered in exasperation, “Spent turning bread.”
“I don't want to come back here to find the fire department on the door step and the place full of smoke again,” Rose warned, lifting her jacket from the back of a sofa and draping it over her arm. He walked with her as she headed for the front hall. “The top settings are for frozen pastries and the like. Nobody uses them for toast.”
“Danish?” he mused, glancing back through the kitchen door toward the refrigerator.
Rose chuckled, shaking her head. “Oh, I don't know why I bother. Just keep the fire extinguisher handy. And open a window if mum starts coughing. She doesn't have respiratory by-pass.”
The Doctor shooed her toward the exit and she went, kissing her mother goodbye on her way to the door.
As soon as he was certain Rose had gone, the Doctor turned his attention to Jackie. She'd watched her daughter leave. Now she looked at him, clicked off the television and rose from her chair. “We need to talk,” she said.
“I think we do,” he agreed. “Shall I make us some tea?”
“No, you bloody well can't make me tea,” Jackie snapped, striding across the room to confront him. “You drugged me,” she accused, shrilly. “In my own house. I should call the police, have you turned out into the street. And it would serve you right if I never let Rose see you again. Probably be the best thing for her...getting rid of you.”
The Doctor tensed, his jaw clenching. He wasn't a very nice man. And he wondered if Jackie had any idea how simple it would make things for him, if she tried to come between him and her daughter. Rose would never tolerate open interference. He thought about explaining this to Jackie, but didn't want her to feel any more threatened than she already did. Of course, he didn't want have this conversation at all. But if he had to have it, he'd much rather have it without Rose caught in the middle. Sighing, he gestured Jackie back toward her chair as he stepped around her and went to the sofa.
“You were there, last night, at her bedroom door,” he said, matter-of-fact, as he sat down. He was resigned to explaining what he'd rather not ever discuss. “What did you see?”
“You knew?” Jackie gasped. She'd just settled but this made her rise from the chair again like a startled pheasent. He thought she might slap him. “You knew I was there and...you...?”
“I'm...let's say, I was grateful you didn't rush in and start screaming.”
“I couldn't. I couldn't even move. You were...you just..." Deflating, she sank back into her seat. "Seeing Rose like that. It was horrible.”
He nodded slightly, acknowledging her disgust. But when he spoke, his voice had a hard edge to it. “Naturally, we don't think of it like that.”
“You and Rose?” Jackie asked, plaintively, hoping he would apply the pronoun to some other “we.”
“Yes, Rose and I, “ he concurred, softly, “We don't think of our union as horrible.”
Jackie didn't allow herself time to digest his wording. Now that the floodgates had been opened, she wanted to purge herself of every conflicted emotion. “I didn't mean to look,” she blurted. “I didn't even know...it was so different from...anything else. And I was dizzy and sick. Lord knows, I'm not one of those prying mothers, who creep about spying on their children. I've always trusted Rose. I just...I don't know. I woke up from this terrible dream. There was this hole, a great gaping hole in the world, and my Rose, she was falling toward it.” Her gaze had focused inward. She hugged herself, friction burning heat into her upper arms by rubbing them briskly. “I heard her screaming.”
The Doctor shivered as well. Sitting on the very edge of the sofa cushions, he spoke sharply to Jackie. The whites of his eyes gleamed all around the irises as his brows rose. “A hole? You dreamed about a hole in the world?”
“Tha's what it looked like,” Jackie told him, obviously reading far less significance into her dream than he did. Knowing he couldn't press her now, he decided to ask her more about it later. “I woke up shivering and sick, and then, I thought I heard her cry out. So, I went to her bedroom. I was that dizzy, I had to hold onto the wall.”
“You shouldn't have been out of bed,” he told her. “You Tyler women amaze me.”
“I only wanted to check, to make sure she was okay. And I called at the door. I did. But when she didn't answer me...”
“We were,” he searched for the right way to put it and settled on, “preoccupied.”
Jackie didn't seem to care what term he used. All of her attention had turned to the memory of he and Rose together, her daughter and an alien.
“I know what you think of me,” Jackie said, “But I'm not stupid. My Rose is a healthy young woman. Bound to get up to things with a man she fancies. I figured the two of you were involved. She used to spend the night with Mickey, and that Jimmy Stone...and I never said a word, except to remind her about protection. But this...? I never imagined it would be like that between you. It's unnatural. Not...human.”
“Well, I'm not human," he pointed out in his most reasonable tone.
“But my Rose is! How could she do that with you?” Sweeping her gaze over him, she hit a strident note as she said, “You look just like us.”
“Superficially,” he said, “but, just under my skin I'm a different species entirely.”
“Your skin,” Jackie said, shuddering over the memory. “It crawls.”
“Bristles,” he corrected, clinically. “But you're right," he nodded a few times to show he understood her concerns. "I'm not like you. I'm not even a primate. What Rose and I do is, fundamentally, unnatural. For both of us.”
“Then...why?”
“We..." He sighed. "How do I put this? We enjoy one another.”
“Wh-what about...?” Jackie began, before pausing to moisten her lips and swallow. The Doctor almost smiled at this reticence. It was so unlike her. “Can you...? Can the pair of you...? Can Rose get or have...children? Your children, I mean? Doing what you do together? Is it like that? Like sex?”
“Yes, it's like sex. Well," he shrugged, "it is.”
“And would they be right, normal? Normal babies? Or would they be...mules?”
“Mules?” he exclaimed, nose wrinkling as he scowled at her. Her reasoning defied him. He tugged at his hair with one hand, struggling not to sneer as he asked, “Why would they be like...? Oh, oh! Infertile, you mean? Ah, yes, clever that...they would be interspecific hybrids, like, as you say, mule. Or Tigons or ligers. Very like that. And, such hybrids are usually sterile...well, the males are. Only not in this case."
"So they wouldn't be like mules?"
"It's rather hard to explain.” His head bobbed and his mouth moved silently, chewing over the problem as he hemmed and hawed. Finally, figuring she deserved to know, he launched into a full explanation. “Fertility is based on chromosomal alignment at meiosis. Horses and donkeys have different numbers of chromosomes. So, they don't line up properly. But my species is polymorphic and, also, polyploidic. The question of offspring would be more analogous to...crossbreeding plants. Say, I was a hydrangea and Rose was a...rose. Our offspring would be something else entirely. And definitely able to breed true to their own type. Or...I say, definitely...probably...most likely. Actually, I'm not sure that's been tested. But my kind interbred with yours in the distant past. And the children passed for human, or,” he said, lingering on the conjunction because he wanted to be completely honest about this, “Demigods. Quite a few lived to breeding age...married and such. My DNA sequencing remains constant in this body once I'm out of my regenerative cycle...but my reproductive cells adapt to...”
Jackie, who had been staring at him in wide-eyed dismay for several seconds, suddenly lost all patience. “Oh, you can shut up,” she exclaimed. “Godsakes, how does she put up with you rambling on like that for days and days?”
“Right, then,” he said, saluting. “Shutting it. Summing up: Rose could get pregnant. But she won't until she's ready. I'll see to that.”
“And when she's ready, what then?” Jackie asked. “And don't go on and on about it, this time. Just answer me this, Doctor. What about when she's ready to settle down? When she's too old or too sick to keep up with you? I've seen how the pair of you live, laughing at monsters, taking mad risks. Mickey's gone and he's never coming back. How do I know you won't leave Rose and her children on some alien world? You could change your face, disappear.”
“I would never leave her.” There was a ferocity behind his measured reassurance, but Jackie dismissed it without a second thought.
“Even if I believe that,” she said, with a careless waft of her hand, “It's not safe, traveling with you.”
He had nothing to say to this. Rose had lost a child already because of him. She'd, also, lost her face and nearly died several times over. He did live a reckless life. And he had work to do that only he could do.
“Do you love her? Do you love my daughter?”
The Doctor winced. Why did humans always ask this question? He was never sure how to answer it. Oh, he knew what Jackie wanted him to say. Knew what she meant, even. She meant, will you protect Rose and keep her safe? Will you promise me she'll never be hurt? But the word love was so inadequate for what he and Rose shared. He loved the Muppets and ice cream and traveling. He'd loved many people in his 900 years of life, each of his wives, his children and grandchildren, Borusa, Sarah Jane, Romana, Tegan, and, to some extent, every other traveling companion he'd ever had. Love, like lust, was an effervescent, transient pleasure. It could move mountains, and then die and fade away. When you examined it closely, love had no real substance to it. Sparked by a series of chemical reactions in the brain and body, love was, at the heart of it all, a neurological impulse.
But there was nothing impulsive in his attachment to Rose. It was true that most of the time, he loved her completely and unreservedly, with a breathless giddiness. But to label true union 'love' was like naming a child's drawing of a star 'the sun.' To say he loved Rose would be like saying he loved his right arm or his left heart or all six of his kidneys. Of course, he did love these parts of himself, when he thought about them in those terms. If a madman with an ax (or a Sycorax with a sword) were to chop off his arm (or his hand), it would be detached from him, but no less a part of him. He would never get over losing it. Nor would it get over losing him.
It didn't matter if he could go on existing without his hand or a heart. A new hand had taken the place of his old one. But, the old one was still his hand. If pressed to find it, even now, he could do so. He knew, for example, that at this very moment it was pickling in a jar in Cardiff. Why Cardiff, he wondered? Before dismissing the thought.
If someone asked, “Do you love your right hand?” What would he say?
It's my hand!
He decided to say much the same to Jackie. “She's my Rose,” he said.
“But do you love her?” Jackie pressed, and he knew any attempt at poetic license would go over her head. “Really? Truly?”
“Yes,” he said, simply, consigning his oaths and ranking as a Time Lord to perdition with a single word. No regrets, he thought, as Jackie went on speaking.
“As much as I do? Enough to let go? Enough to do the right thing, like you did before? You sent her home once. And that's the only reason I have to trust you.”
“I've promised Rose,” he said, “that she can stay with me as long as she likes. You're asking me if I would send her away? No! You have no idea what that would do to her.”
“Yes, I do,” Jackie said. “Why do you think I've remained quiet all this time?”
“Quiet?” he scoffed.
“I've let you have the run of this house. I've played my part,” she said, offended by his open disdain. “You won't hear anyone say different. Everyone thinks I'm the happy mother-in-law.” He lifted a curious brow at this, wondering if she suspected how apt the term was. “But I have to know...this one thing. If there ever comes a time when you can't protect her, are you strong enough to let her go?”
Eyes steady on hers, he rose from the sofa, a sure signal this conversation was at an end.
“I want her beside me, always," he said. "But I will never put my happiness ahead of her safety,” he shook his head as he went on, “I'm sorry. That's all I can promise you. Now, if I can't interest you in tea, how about some toast?”
END PART 22
...does that make this Part 23? Maybe! But I think of this as one, obviously wordy, chapter.
GO HERE FIRST...before reading on and read the beginning of the chapter...you need it to know what's happened there...before you will understand what's happening here...
Now...begins the overkill of warnings...all who pass this point beware...
STOP!!
DO NOT START READING UNTIL YOU'VE READ THE FIRST HALF OF CHAPTER 22
Read Part ONE and then come back to this part...
He glanced up and, flashing an impudent grin, caroled, “Hello!”
Rose would have called him something nasty, if he hadn't been shimmering. All along his chest and back, the mantle of arousal bristled. The moving tapestry of desire never failed to mesmerize her. And for so long, she'd been blind to it. In the beginning, everything had happened so fast and this display had been hidden under layers of clothing. The Doctor's arousal had manifested for her as a hundred needle sharp darts firing neurotoxins into her skin. Her earliest experiences with this mantling phenomenon had been brief shots of pain, followed by the drugged haze of his aphrodisiac. But now, she could see all of his sexual arousal signs. He'd learned to trust her, and himself. And she'd learned to see him as he was--alien, but extraordinarily beautiful in full mating display.
He was like an anemone, her Doctor. Most like that, she supposed, with his venomous darts bristling. Stray ions, dust particles in the air, even her pheromones, acted like ocean currents might on the tiny hair-like projections. In the presence of his true companion, the Doctor's cnidocytes danced. They stirred and swayed, creating intricate and beautiful patterns. The specialized cells she'd once thought of as a random collection of goosebumps or prickly little harpoons, Rose now thought of as enticing. This display was for her alone, his life mate. If she blew on his skin, or even thought about touching him, he responded. His skin rippled and, as he'd showed her via the TARDIS photo lab, also emitted colors and other high spectrum energies. He let her hear the music via their telepathic link.
And then there was his sex.
Her gaze was inexorably drawn to it as he stepped free of his trousers. It had blooming open a bit and the sight set Rose's mouth watering. She licked her lips, slowly, seductively; thrilled when his display changed. The pleasure he could give her in full flower surpassed even the wonders of their mental union. But, she knew better than to rush this. She approached him cautiously. He hadn't been exaggerating about how dangerous this was. His kind mated violently. Gallifreyan males were a stealthy lot. After enticing a partner in with an arousal display, they were programmed to tackle her, striking without warning. A Gallifreyan female, injected with neurotoxin was still strong enough to respond or recoil, depending on her level of psychic compatibility with her would-be mate.
But, naked and telepathically defenseless, a human female stood no chance. If the Doctor hit her with even a fraction of the toxic load he would use on one of his own kind, Rose would be comatose for a week. Mutual physical pleasure depended on the dance, on Rose being his true companion. She needed to commune with him psychically, let him know she was prepared to accept him. And she could do that now. The connection was strong enough, she was strong enough. Which meant he was free to display for her, free to experience his full sexuality. He held a hand up, palm out, facing her and she mirrored him. They touched at the fingertips, then at the palm, still standing two arm's lengths apart.
His eyes glittered like cut crystal as they focused on hers. She stroked him with her mind, drawing imaginary fingers along his shoulders, and down across his chest. The skin there swirled and the Doctor sent a resonating hum into her head. He continued to sing, even as he hissed his next breath through clenched teeth. Rose hummed, too, and watched him fight off the urge to put her down.
His mouth opened and closed, but he had no words for what he wanted. He flashed her the impression of it and her nipples hardened even more, throbbing in anticipation. Catching and holding his gaze, she very slowly shifted her fingers, sliding them against, and then inbetween his. When she tightened her grip, he broke eye contact, head tipping back as he groaned. Rose glanced down and saw he was ready for her. She tugged him forward as she sank onto the end of the bed.
You're so beautiful. she told him again, mind to mind. “Perfect,” she said, softly popping her p and t. Her exhalation curled around his orchid-like member, stimulating it to full bloom.
It reached for her lips, depositing a feather-light kiss with its delicate petals. Sighing, she closed her eyes and opened her mouth, surrounding her Doctor in the moist heat he craved. Invited to explore, he touched her ear, caressed her throat and fluttered over her eyelids. When the thousands of little tongues started to vibrate, the singing in her head became a chorus, urging her to lie back on the bed. She settled into a completely receptive position, knees up, heels braced wide as she relaxed onto her bent elbows.
His first pass over her belly went all the way down, into the slick valley between her legs. The surge of bliss nearly stopped her heart. She gasped as it slammed into her ribcage and cried out before she could stop herself. A moment later she thought she heard an answering call from just outside the room door.
The door was only partially closed and under any other circumstance Rose would have investigated such a noise. But her current state of psychic overload left her very little synaptic leeway to harbor suspicions. Her brain was busy cataloging a deluge of alien sensations. Lit up inside, blood and bone on fire, she could only pray for reference points for most of the incoming sensory data. Delicious tremors zigzagged through her. She could see the radio waves and microwaves in the air around her. Sound had texture. That was him, she knew, his senses overlapping hers.
Rose had never used drugs but she imagined tripping on something wildly hallucinogenic must feel this way. She could taste the Doctor's thoughts. Her nervous system had no means to process his feelings and impressions. It had red-lined at the outer limits of pleasure, one chemical reaction short of a meltdown.
And then, the Doctor kissed her.
It was a sweet, simple kiss, but the touch helped her orient on him, on what he was doing above her. His mouth was wondrously compliant, adapting to her purely human need for a physical connection. Lips, soft on hers, brought back an awareness of her body. Tender kisses, coming one after another, awakened her to a shivering need. She needed to arch under him, press into him. Oh, she wanted to fuck him, now. She wanted a hard, slick ride and knew he wanted one, too. A sweet pang coiled around her heart. Her abdominal muscles tensed taut enough to quiver. And it became crystal clear that no matter how alien, how cerebral, this encounter seemed, it was still sex. They both panted and shuddered and Rose came.
Mind-to-mind, he absorbed her climax, making it his. But something was blocking him from his own release. Rose pressed for the reason and caught a glimpse of a swirling void, but he shunted the image away from her. She scraped her nails down his spine, opened her mind to him and encouraged him to give in to the avalanche of sensations bombarding them both. She wanted him to come for her, chanted for it in his head: Go on. Go on. Jump. Fall. Love, mine, let me catch you.
With a mindless growl, he rose to his knees above her. His fingers locked around her wrists and he dragged her hands up over her head. Then, he shifted his legs, straddling her hips. The straddling no longer seemed wrong to her, it was so very right. Everything they did together felt perfectly natural to her. He wanted to hold onto her, needed that. He needed to make it perfectly obvious she was his. No enemy, no rival, could claim her or steal her from him, because they were one mind, one form.
They caught and kept a rhythm, rocking the bed until its springs squeaked. She pushed him to climax, shoving him into the bright sun at the center of her mind. When he came, when the white light of his soul rocketed through her, Rose rode with him all the way down into the black. They slumped into one another, their bodies curling into a yin and yang circle.
Lying content in the Doctor's arms, Rose waited for her heart rate to slow. She drifted towards sleep, listening to the repetitive sound of the Doctor's breathing, happy he'd found rest. In the distance, she could hear traffic racing along the highway. Nearby, there were muted voices, but it was still too quiet. It took her a moment to realize what was missing. There was no satisfied hum from the walls of her room, no TARDIS to tuck reality in around them and bid them sweet dreams.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Are you sure you'll be alright while I'm gone?” Rose murmured, cutting her glance toward the living room, where her mother sat watching Coronation Street. “My mum's still acting odd. No bickering. No yelling. I don't want to leave her alone.”
“She won't be alone, will she? I'm here. And Sarah Jane is expecting you.”
“You could go,” Rose suggested, half-heartedly. “Give her my regards.”
Her marked lack of enthusiasm for this plan, told him he had chosen the right bait to remove her from the house. “Oh, I don't think I could.” He swept a hand across his nape, peering up at her, as he said, “All those...memories.”
Rose sighed, knowing he was right. She wasn't jealous of Sarah Jane anymore. They'd become fast friends. But it wouldn't be fair to thank the poor woman for her help by reminding her of the past. She'd finally given up on waiting and had started rebuilding her life. A visit from the Doctor was the last thing she needed at this juncture. Rose's worried frown showed the extent of her internal conflict. She didn't want to upset her new friend, but she wasn't sure she should leave her mother with the Doctor.
“You won't wander off?”
He shot her an exasperated glare. “I'm not a toddler,” he said, testily. “I can get by for a few hours without adult supervision.”
“My Mrs. Phathiakulkwedia senses are tingling,” Rose muttered, narrowing her eyes at him. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“By sending you to see Sarah Jane?” he asked, hitting a falsetto note, which nearly confirmed her suspicions. “She called you, didn't she? I'm only suggesting it would do you good to see the old girl. Swap stories, imbibe a spot of tea...”
“It's just not like you to be so considerate.”
He could sense the wheels turning in her head. But her attention drifted again to her mother and, as it did, he made a conscious effort to influence her subconsciously. “We'll be fine,” he said, softly pressing on her mind. “As long as there are no alien invasions or half-off sales at Primark we'll stay right here, making toast and watching telly. You just toddle off to your girl's day out.”
Rose nodded, abruptly reaching her decision. “Don't try to fix the toaster,” she said, stepping forward and going up on tiptoes to kiss him. “The top settings are supposed to burn the toast.”
“And I imagine it was purposely engineered to make the upper left quadrant of a slice dark brown whilst leaving the lower half completely untoasted?”
“Yes, that's how we humans like our toast,” Rose told him, flatly.
“You rotate your bread, one quarter turn,” he accused, following her from the room. “You pop it up, turn it forty-five degrees and restart the toaster. I've seen you. Do you have any idea how many creative hours are being lost to the human race if everyone does that? Art, invention, peace initiatives, all of that bountiful, beautiful energy...simply...squandered,” he sputtered in exasperation, “Spent turning bread.”
“I don't want to come back here to find the fire department on the door step and the place full of smoke again,” Rose warned, lifting her jacket from the back of a sofa and draping it over her arm. He walked with her as she headed for the front hall. “The top settings are for frozen pastries and the like. Nobody uses them for toast.”
“Danish?” he mused, glancing back through the kitchen door toward the refrigerator.
Rose chuckled, shaking her head. “Oh, I don't know why I bother. Just keep the fire extinguisher handy. And open a window if mum starts coughing. She doesn't have respiratory by-pass.”
The Doctor shooed her toward the exit and she went, kissing her mother goodbye on her way to the door.
As soon as he was certain Rose had gone, the Doctor turned his attention to Jackie. She'd watched her daughter leave. Now she looked at him, clicked off the television and rose from her chair. “We need to talk,” she said.
“I think we do,” he agreed. “Shall I make us some tea?”
“No, you bloody well can't make me tea,” Jackie snapped, striding across the room to confront him. “You drugged me,” she accused, shrilly. “In my own house. I should call the police, have you turned out into the street. And it would serve you right if I never let Rose see you again. Probably be the best thing for her...getting rid of you.”
The Doctor tensed, his jaw clenching. He wasn't a very nice man. And he wondered if Jackie had any idea how simple it would make things for him, if she tried to come between him and her daughter. Rose would never tolerate open interference. He thought about explaining this to Jackie, but didn't want her to feel any more threatened than she already did. Of course, he didn't want have this conversation at all. But if he had to have it, he'd much rather have it without Rose caught in the middle. Sighing, he gestured Jackie back toward her chair as he stepped around her and went to the sofa.
“You were there, last night, at her bedroom door,” he said, matter-of-fact, as he sat down. He was resigned to explaining what he'd rather not ever discuss. “What did you see?”
“You knew?” Jackie gasped. She'd just settled but this made her rise from the chair again like a startled pheasent. He thought she might slap him. “You knew I was there and...you...?”
“I'm...let's say, I was grateful you didn't rush in and start screaming.”
“I couldn't. I couldn't even move. You were...you just..." Deflating, she sank back into her seat. "Seeing Rose like that. It was horrible.”
He nodded slightly, acknowledging her disgust. But when he spoke, his voice had a hard edge to it. “Naturally, we don't think of it like that.”
“You and Rose?” Jackie asked, plaintively, hoping he would apply the pronoun to some other “we.”
“Yes, Rose and I, “ he concurred, softly, “We don't think of our union as horrible.”
Jackie didn't allow herself time to digest his wording. Now that the floodgates had been opened, she wanted to purge herself of every conflicted emotion. “I didn't mean to look,” she blurted. “I didn't even know...it was so different from...anything else. And I was dizzy and sick. Lord knows, I'm not one of those prying mothers, who creep about spying on their children. I've always trusted Rose. I just...I don't know. I woke up from this terrible dream. There was this hole, a great gaping hole in the world, and my Rose, she was falling toward it.” Her gaze had focused inward. She hugged herself, friction burning heat into her upper arms by rubbing them briskly. “I heard her screaming.”
The Doctor shivered as well. Sitting on the very edge of the sofa cushions, he spoke sharply to Jackie. The whites of his eyes gleamed all around the irises as his brows rose. “A hole? You dreamed about a hole in the world?”
“Tha's what it looked like,” Jackie told him, obviously reading far less significance into her dream than he did. Knowing he couldn't press her now, he decided to ask her more about it later. “I woke up shivering and sick, and then, I thought I heard her cry out. So, I went to her bedroom. I was that dizzy, I had to hold onto the wall.”
“You shouldn't have been out of bed,” he told her. “You Tyler women amaze me.”
“I only wanted to check, to make sure she was okay. And I called at the door. I did. But when she didn't answer me...”
“We were,” he searched for the right way to put it and settled on, “preoccupied.”
Jackie didn't seem to care what term he used. All of her attention had turned to the memory of he and Rose together, her daughter and an alien.
“I know what you think of me,” Jackie said, “But I'm not stupid. My Rose is a healthy young woman. Bound to get up to things with a man she fancies. I figured the two of you were involved. She used to spend the night with Mickey, and that Jimmy Stone...and I never said a word, except to remind her about protection. But this...? I never imagined it would be like that between you. It's unnatural. Not...human.”
“Well, I'm not human," he pointed out in his most reasonable tone.
“But my Rose is! How could she do that with you?” Sweeping her gaze over him, she hit a strident note as she said, “You look just like us.”
“Superficially,” he said, “but, just under my skin I'm a different species entirely.”
“Your skin,” Jackie said, shuddering over the memory. “It crawls.”
“Bristles,” he corrected, clinically. “But you're right," he nodded a few times to show he understood her concerns. "I'm not like you. I'm not even a primate. What Rose and I do is, fundamentally, unnatural. For both of us.”
“Then...why?”
“We..." He sighed. "How do I put this? We enjoy one another.”
“Wh-what about...?” Jackie began, before pausing to moisten her lips and swallow. The Doctor almost smiled at this reticence. It was so unlike her. “Can you...? Can the pair of you...? Can Rose get or have...children? Your children, I mean? Doing what you do together? Is it like that? Like sex?”
“Yes, it's like sex. Well," he shrugged, "it is.”
“And would they be right, normal? Normal babies? Or would they be...mules?”
“Mules?” he exclaimed, nose wrinkling as he scowled at her. Her reasoning defied him. He tugged at his hair with one hand, struggling not to sneer as he asked, “Why would they be like...? Oh, oh! Infertile, you mean? Ah, yes, clever that...they would be interspecific hybrids, like, as you say, mule. Or Tigons or ligers. Very like that. And, such hybrids are usually sterile...well, the males are. Only not in this case."
"So they wouldn't be like mules?"
"It's rather hard to explain.” His head bobbed and his mouth moved silently, chewing over the problem as he hemmed and hawed. Finally, figuring she deserved to know, he launched into a full explanation. “Fertility is based on chromosomal alignment at meiosis. Horses and donkeys have different numbers of chromosomes. So, they don't line up properly. But my species is polymorphic and, also, polyploidic. The question of offspring would be more analogous to...crossbreeding plants. Say, I was a hydrangea and Rose was a...rose. Our offspring would be something else entirely. And definitely able to breed true to their own type. Or...I say, definitely...probably...most likely. Actually, I'm not sure that's been tested. But my kind interbred with yours in the distant past. And the children passed for human, or,” he said, lingering on the conjunction because he wanted to be completely honest about this, “Demigods. Quite a few lived to breeding age...married and such. My DNA sequencing remains constant in this body once I'm out of my regenerative cycle...but my reproductive cells adapt to...”
Jackie, who had been staring at him in wide-eyed dismay for several seconds, suddenly lost all patience. “Oh, you can shut up,” she exclaimed. “Godsakes, how does she put up with you rambling on like that for days and days?”
“Right, then,” he said, saluting. “Shutting it. Summing up: Rose could get pregnant. But she won't until she's ready. I'll see to that.”
“And when she's ready, what then?” Jackie asked. “And don't go on and on about it, this time. Just answer me this, Doctor. What about when she's ready to settle down? When she's too old or too sick to keep up with you? I've seen how the pair of you live, laughing at monsters, taking mad risks. Mickey's gone and he's never coming back. How do I know you won't leave Rose and her children on some alien world? You could change your face, disappear.”
“I would never leave her.” There was a ferocity behind his measured reassurance, but Jackie dismissed it without a second thought.
“Even if I believe that,” she said, with a careless waft of her hand, “It's not safe, traveling with you.”
He had nothing to say to this. Rose had lost a child already because of him. She'd, also, lost her face and nearly died several times over. He did live a reckless life. And he had work to do that only he could do.
“Do you love her? Do you love my daughter?”
The Doctor winced. Why did humans always ask this question? He was never sure how to answer it. Oh, he knew what Jackie wanted him to say. Knew what she meant, even. She meant, will you protect Rose and keep her safe? Will you promise me she'll never be hurt? But the word love was so inadequate for what he and Rose shared. He loved the Muppets and ice cream and traveling. He'd loved many people in his 900 years of life, each of his wives, his children and grandchildren, Borusa, Sarah Jane, Romana, Tegan, and, to some extent, every other traveling companion he'd ever had. Love, like lust, was an effervescent, transient pleasure. It could move mountains, and then die and fade away. When you examined it closely, love had no real substance to it. Sparked by a series of chemical reactions in the brain and body, love was, at the heart of it all, a neurological impulse.
But there was nothing impulsive in his attachment to Rose. It was true that most of the time, he loved her completely and unreservedly, with a breathless giddiness. But to label true union 'love' was like naming a child's drawing of a star 'the sun.' To say he loved Rose would be like saying he loved his right arm or his left heart or all six of his kidneys. Of course, he did love these parts of himself, when he thought about them in those terms. If a madman with an ax (or a Sycorax with a sword) were to chop off his arm (or his hand), it would be detached from him, but no less a part of him. He would never get over losing it. Nor would it get over losing him.
It didn't matter if he could go on existing without his hand or a heart. A new hand had taken the place of his old one. But, the old one was still his hand. If pressed to find it, even now, he could do so. He knew, for example, that at this very moment it was pickling in a jar in Cardiff. Why Cardiff, he wondered? Before dismissing the thought.
If someone asked, “Do you love your right hand?” What would he say?
It's my hand!
He decided to say much the same to Jackie. “She's my Rose,” he said.
“But do you love her?” Jackie pressed, and he knew any attempt at poetic license would go over her head. “Really? Truly?”
“Yes,” he said, simply, consigning his oaths and ranking as a Time Lord to perdition with a single word. No regrets, he thought, as Jackie went on speaking.
“As much as I do? Enough to let go? Enough to do the right thing, like you did before? You sent her home once. And that's the only reason I have to trust you.”
“I've promised Rose,” he said, “that she can stay with me as long as she likes. You're asking me if I would send her away? No! You have no idea what that would do to her.”
“Yes, I do,” Jackie said. “Why do you think I've remained quiet all this time?”
“Quiet?” he scoffed.
“I've let you have the run of this house. I've played my part,” she said, offended by his open disdain. “You won't hear anyone say different. Everyone thinks I'm the happy mother-in-law.” He lifted a curious brow at this, wondering if she suspected how apt the term was. “But I have to know...this one thing. If there ever comes a time when you can't protect her, are you strong enough to let her go?”
Eyes steady on hers, he rose from the sofa, a sure signal this conversation was at an end.
“I want her beside me, always," he said. "But I will never put my happiness ahead of her safety,” he shook his head as he went on, “I'm sorry. That's all I can promise you. Now, if I can't interest you in tea, how about some toast?”
END PART 22
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 04:57 am (UTC)Just excellent! Seeing a new chapter of this is always a treat. Thanks so much!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 09:49 am (UTC)I am gratified to see that you soaked up the gravity of the Jackie-Doctor conversation. It is vital, in my view, to understanding what he does in Doomsday. I think he just felt that separating Rose and her mother would be a deal-breaker for Rose and so he steeled himself for the loss. So, I set that up here...with Rose doing all she can to protect her mum...and Jackie pointing out the dangers of the Doctor's lifestyle.
Thanks for your comments...it is always a treat to hear from you, too.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 05:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 09:55 am (UTC)Add in the Doctor's inability to separate Rose from his own flesh...she's like his hand...and we can see how he might misunderstand how serious she was about "never leaving" him. She wasn't just talking...she'd made her decision a long time ago. And her mother wasn't the most important person at all.
I am so happy you love the fic. I hope it ends well for you. Three more chapters to go...less than 3 weeks until Christmas. It's a horse race, now! :eek:
Thanks for the lovely feedback. Glad you liked the flower cock sex. Now he's an anemone...I can hear the critics moaning over it already. :-0 and also ;->
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 06:08 am (UTC)Have I told you lately how brilliant I think you are? No? You're brilliant.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 09:59 am (UTC)There is heartbreak straight ahead now...fasten your seat belts for it. And thank you so much for the comments and the "You're brilliant"...you made me all glowy inside.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 06:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 09:15 pm (UTC)Second, one of the things I love about this story that this chapter highlights is the amazing way you handle the growing relationship between the Doctor and Rose, both physically and emotionally. There's an emotional depth to your writing that leads one to find beauty and sensuality in something that is fantastic (in multiple senses of the word) and unnatural without a second thought. To the point where I bet most readers' first reactions to Jackie was to be upset, but then if you think about it, we'd probably all have had the same reactions as she did if we'd just jumped in at this chapter. It's brilliant.
*stubbornly ignores impending doom and heartache to revel in present loveliness*
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 06:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 06:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 07:30 pm (UTC)Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 06:53 am (UTC)Trying to break into the TARDIS was pretty hilarious. A tad distracted, eh, Doctor? *giggle* I can't help but think of the times when the TARDIS let just random strangers wander in (who, of course, became companions), but will lock even the Doctor out! (I liked your explanation for why the TARDIS didn't know to just open the door)
God bless K-9...all of them!
Really awesome job integrating the events of "Love & Monsters". I never stopped to think how much Jackie was affected by what Elton did. Yeah, we saw Rose all ticked off, but you made Jackie so much more...human. Real. No wonder Rose was so pissed off.
And I love how you never miss a trick...Rose's hair was even braided in Ch 21, so it would match with her hair in L&M!
Said Time Lord had caved completely when she'd pleaded with those puppy-dog eyes of hers. He wasn't made of stone, even if Elton's girlfriend now was.
*snort*
The sex scene is H.O.T. HOT! I'm continually amazed at the richness of your vision of the Time Lords, physically, psychically, sex...the whole shebang. For being so completely alien, I can still picture everything perfectly.
I loooooove that Rose has come to appreciate, love, and even crave this completely foreign way of connecting to another person. The Doctor is alien...but instead of comparing to her human view of sex, she appreciates what they do in its own right. They've both managed to adapt and compromise in a way that makes the experience..."pleasurable" isn't a strong enough word, but I guess it will have to do. They are completely in love and how they express that love is becoming natural to them.
Then you counterbalance this SO nicely by having Jackie be so horrified by what she saw. The Doctor does so well in acknowledging her disgust, without making any justifications. That's an incredibly enlightened position. Yes, it's not natural for a human and a Gallifreyan to mate, to fall in love. But it happened. I think he was right to keep Rose out of the conversation for the moment. It kept the situation more calm and reasoned. But he sure as heck better tell her that her mom knows what's what! (well, aside from that tiny detail of being married n' all... lol)
And trust Jackie to be the one to get the Doctor to admit out loud that he loves Rose. XD Though I understand his position...yeah, yeah, Time Lord blah blah...even forgetting all that, their relationship goes far beyond just the conventional view of "love". But there's no other word that fits. He tried to explain it, but it's a tough concept to understand, how Rose is a part of him. How they are part of each other, as necessary as any limb or organ.
I want to be mad at Jackie for not understanding (and now I'm afraid that all the goofy mother-in-lawness at the beginning of "Army of Ghosts" is just a front), but I can't blame her, either. It took the Doctor and Rose a number of years to get to this point, so she's certainly not going to accept it overnight.
All in all, AWESOME chapter. I can't believe there are only three chapters left! I'm torn...I want to know what happens, but I don't want it to be over, either. I have enjoyed reading this story SO much.
OMG - I just realized that it's 2:00am! See, you suck me in, darn you! :D
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 12:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:Correction
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 08:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 03:00 am (UTC)As for your GUH...thank you so much. I really enjoy bringing the weird alien sex scenes into the realm of hotness. It's not easy making orchids and anemones sexy. :wink: But you know...there are rewards for my efforts. Like lovely comments such as yours.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 09:27 am (UTC)I know Rose in the end will be seperated from him for a while, but then go back. I think finally then Jackie would accept him and any children they have. I have a feeling Rose will be stay in the other universe long enough to raise her next son or daughter.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 09:34 am (UTC)This is simply an extension of what she is worried about with Rose. Jackie has a very narrow view of the world...and she tried to superimpose that view on Rose...but it never really took. Jackie says things like "That shop was giving you airs and graces
and is put off by Rose being "just like him." Rose, however, views her life before the Doctor as a barren wasteland...nothing ever happened.
I think Jackie simply didn't understand how much Rose loved the Doctor until that moment at the wall when Rose is weeping. By the time we get to the beach scene in Doomsday...Jackie understands and sympathizes. She, too, has the experience of losing the man she loved more than any other. She just didn't associate that depth of adult feeling with her little girl. Rose keeps things inside...witness how long it takes HER to admit her love to the Doctor...or to show him just how determined she is to "never leave" him.
Rae
thanking you for your thoughtful feedback. Nice to see you still reading, Kit.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 12:55 pm (UTC)That is all. (^_^)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 03:06 am (UTC):slathers it on:
Thanks for the kicking comment.
Rae
Only I want to know these things
Date: 2007-12-05 03:07 pm (UTC)Well, Rose and I...
Date: 2007-12-05 05:17 pm (UTC)I think once he came to grips wtih the idea of WANTING to pounce on her...he was religiously rigorous with his self-medicating. Of course, that is something to think on...maybe it is proportional for desire...but the spice simply works on the cellular walls of his sperm, not really on his libido. My personal feeling is that contact with moist heat and Rose's growing telepathic ability is what is stimulating him.
I imagine on his dry, nearly barren, home world, water still equals life...or life-giving. This accounts for the attraction to humans, as well. We are a hot and juicy species. He is also stimulated by contact but not in exactly the same way a man would be.
For him...contact causes an almost defensive response...like it would for an anemone or a jellyfish. He always has this heightened sensitivity...that's why he wears so many layers. And, incidentally, why he was screaming so readily in DALEK (for my canon...I'm sure RTD just figured they were using high voltage).
Thanks for your interest. And, by-the-by, can I assume this means you enjoyed the chapter? Even though the Doctor wants to ravish Rose?
Rae
You don't need me to say
From:I don't know...not too many comments
From:Well, I will say this
From:Re: I don't know...not too many comments
From:I'm not embarassed to ask
From:Ah...well...you must understand...
From:Re: Ah...well...you must understand...
From:Enough questions, now for the ego stroking
From:You and Suze are falsely padding my statistics
From:Rose's humanity in canon
From:Well...I happen to agree with you
From:Re: I'm not embarassed to ask
From:I see you have read my reasonings
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 05:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 03:06 am (UTC)Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-05 05:50 pm (UTC)The description of his body when they make love and the emotional intesity. And Jackies entire reaction was perfect. Poor Doctor that must have been a difficult conversation.
Seriously Rae, this fic will go down as one of my all time favourites. Beautifully done.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 03:10 am (UTC)I'm so happy I made you happy with the chapter. And the alien sex surpassed the simple mechanics of it, so you got the love message loud and clear. This is what I wanted this chapter to convey...that what Rose is now...isn't what she was...she's adapted to her life. My hope was that the reader...seeing Jackie react to what would be a very horrifying thing to witness...would come away understanding the depth of devotion Rose and the Doctor share. Basically, how their love transcends the physical.
Thanks for leaving me such a glowing review. I lit up like Chris is doing in your icon when I read it.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 12:43 am (UTC)I don't. Its lovely, you tap into a lot of things that I feel aren't always touched upon. Love, but the true nature of companionship and ... I guess the term soul mate. Its more love. I've never once found this series to be redundant... nor redundant in regards to the fandom. As much as I love my fluff and silliness... there's a lot of concepts that are very over used. You've never ceased to amaze me. You've set a new standard for us with this piece.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 03:17 am (UTC)All I've done is expand on the work RTD laid down in S1, S2 and S3. But I will take credit for trying to keep my concept and approach fresh and interesting. And thank you very much for mentioning that in your comment. It means a lot to be recognized for my originality. :GLEE:
Rae
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 01:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 03:12 am (UTC)Thanks for leaving me such a nice comment.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 03:06 am (UTC)"Queen of Steam"
whew!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 03:11 am (UTC)Thanks for the feedback...reading between the lines, I'd say you enjoyed me turning up the heat one last time.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 06:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-06 12:57 pm (UTC)Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-07 12:54 am (UTC)I really like this fic. The way it weaves so seamlessly into the actual canon is fantastic. I am fascinated by the dream Jackie has had. Wasn't the Doctor himself seeing those things before he pushed the thought away?
I cannot wait to see where you take this.
Clever, you!
Date: 2007-12-07 03:23 am (UTC)Time Lords can see around corners...as we mention earlier...this means, they can sense bad things coming and move to correct their course before the bad happens. However, if the course corrections don't work...they keep getting the bad mojo...dreams, visions, sinus headaches...etc. Pretty soon, everyone around them is feeling edgy and getting premonitions.
And, I like that you are liking the fic. I, too, like to print my fic out for reading...so I completely understand the effort you've made to come back and leave me a comment. Thanks so much for taking the time to make my day. I really appreciate knowing someone caught the shunting.
Rae
Re: Clever, you!
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-07 04:03 am (UTC)LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
you had me smiling and giggling at the Dr's rambling on with Jackie. the rest of it was so very awesome. the love scene was amazing and seemed so normal. good job.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-08 12:19 am (UTC)Jackie is so essential to this...as is everything from here on out. I feel so bad right now, as I am working on the Doomsday bit. SIGH! And thinking of all the warnings I should put on the chapters.
Thanks again for your comment. I always get a thrill out of seeing you're still reading.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-07 04:35 am (UTC)Exactly my problem with a large portion of television and film media today. Its upsetting. For those of us IN real relationships... and those of us who understand them. People need more... intelligence in their relationships. Its good to show a few healthy ones. It doesn't HURT to show healthy ones.
But instead of creating DRAMA out of their inner turmoil...RTD created drama AROUND them and let the turmoil surface and be dealt with a bit at a time. Just as I do in Disheveled.
YES YES YES! Hugely important factor. Every person in EVERY relationship has flaws, its how they are handled as to what makes the relationship healthy, what makes it work, and what makes two people work together. Hugely important. People can't sustain without communication and without patience. And while the Doctor and Rose aren't Always the best communicators... they communicate the important things "I'm upset with you. Apologize." Its true and it works, people make mistakes. People make mistakes in relationships... RTD does a great job with relationship writing. I may not ALWAYS agree with his choices... but he writes relationships beautifully. I will ALWAYS give him that.
As you said, working together. I agree completely.
EXACTLY. That moment set a WHOLE new set of thoughts for me. He may have been mourning Rose's loss, but her name wasn't a wound, it was a drive and a purpose for something better. An achievement or a goal. She keeps him fighting from love, trust, and hope. Love it. You capture and continue it all beautifully.
--Roxy
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-07 07:53 am (UTC)But to label true union 'love' was like naming a child's drawing of a star 'the sun.'
That description just seems so good and true. Love really isn't enough to cover what they have together it's so much...brighter, bigger, more.
But, the old one was still his hand. If pressed to find it, even now, he could do so. He knew, for example, that at this very moment it was pickling in a jar in Cardiff.
My first instinct is to laugh at that, because while I'm sure Jack takes good of his hand there's always the question of what else he might be doing with it which that Doctor would not want to think about it. But then, I wind up sad for it, because can their connection stretch over the Void? When the walls close is she going to be the one place he can't always find her? Anywhere in this universe, wherever, whenever she is he could find her because she's part of him, but once separated by the Void is it too far?
Does math, you said there were a couple chapters after Doomsday which means...damn.
Thanks for the feedback
Date: 2007-12-08 12:27 am (UTC)And another person feels sorry for the hand. I did. And so I wanted to write something about that...and about how the void will act on the bond with Rose. You are quite correct to link those things up in your head. It is all tied together now...and hopefully, my ideas are coming though loud and clear...Doomsday is going to be bad though...as will Chapter 24. You must all hold on until Chapter 25...tha's all I can say to alleviate your suffering.
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-07 01:48 pm (UTC)Tsk, tsk. That's rather naughty of the Doctor. One of these days, Rose will notice and slap him for it if he does it again.
Like everyone else, I loved how you have evolved the sexual act between him and Rose. I had hoped you would show them having sex that wasn't an experiment, and you did it in spades yet still added something new. Brava. Hot and emotionally sexy.
Oh, and the discussion with Jackie! No doubt she wouldn't allow him to make tea. Again, naughty Doctor. Still, it's telling that he has to cheat to get his way against Tyler women. They have much sway with him.
But he certainly paid for it. When he wouldn't do it for Rose, he broke his oath for Jackie. Doomsday looms even more ominously.
The discussion of Jackie's catching them in the act was well done. You're not one for throwaway lines, so I was interested in his explanation of their fertility. Interested in what he got cut off saying about between regenerations.
Can't wait for upcoming chapters.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-08 07:28 pm (UTC)Doomsday, as you say, looms. I'm writing it now and it's giving me some difficulty. I hope that doesn't bog me down. I want to have both of the next chapters posted by 12/15. After that...it won't really matter for Chapter 25...I will probably do it as a Christmas present for everyone. And part of me even thinks the faint of heart should wait for it, before reading. I know you and I have discussed a bit of what will be going down in the finale of this fic...but other people are going to be shocked, I think.
Everything is meaningful that this point in things...the openess between the Doctor and Rose. Rose's protectiveness toward her mother. The TARDIS tucking them in. The shunting of his dream. And their fertility...sort of. It establishes that they are thinking about children, even talking about them, and that is important.
So happy to hear from you in such detail...does this mean you are feeling a bit better? Or did you just flatter me by putting excessive time into this? Either way...you make my day!
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-07 02:39 pm (UTC)It's my hand!
He decided to say much the same to Jackie. “She's my...Rose,” he said."
Waw, waw, waw! I don't think someone has ever described their relationship in a better way...
It's like he's part of her, and she's part of him... You just need to see how desesperate the Doctor is without his Rose in series 3 to understand it...
There's no need of wedding ceremony or great love declaration between them really...
I remember this greek legend about one being divided in two and those two parts becoming a man and a woman, looking for each other and never finding their other part...
The Doctor had found his Rose... but he lost her... Gosh, I can't wait for series 4!!!!!
“Can you...the pair of you...? Can Rose get, have...children? Your children, I mean? "
Yes, Jackie, they can...And the little one is called Susan!
Oh, and by the way, rabid1st, you are brilliant!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-10 02:41 am (UTC)Thanks for the juicy feedback, Sunny! I do appreciate you sticking with my story as I motor along. And you are correct, there was no need for a wedding ceremony or any declaration...because the closeness they share isn't validated by anything else. It just exists. It is beyond denial or embellishment.
I, too, really hope we get something fantastic in S4. We do already have great news. And I'm just beaming encouraging thoughts at RTD and Billie and the BBC. Give us the happy! Give us the happy!
Oh...and a real kiss, please.
Thanks again for the feedback, I'm hugging the thought of you close as I work on Doomsday. Another episode I must get up close and personal with. :SIGH!"
Rae
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-08 12:20 am (UTC)I loved the trying to break into the TARDIS part ^___^ i found it amusing.
I love the alien sex , it's so different to any other fic .i like this part :
She needed to commune with him psychically, let him know she was prepared to accept him. And she could do that now. The connection was strong enough, she was strong enough. Which meant he was free to display for her, free to experience his full sexuality.
The way you write the emotions ,You describe their bond between them both perfectly ,it's lovely and flows nicely :D
The ending with the speech with Jackie ,was something i liked. a few people have already mentioned the part when he describes Rose as part of him.I also love that part ^__^
Doomsday is now drawing near :( think i'll need the tissues soon .Looking forward to reading though :D
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-08 12:32 am (UTC)The sex is hard to get right, because I want it to be both alien and hot. And it made two of my betas laugh in the rough draft part...but they did say they saw where I was going with it and to press on. It isn't the easiest thing to make something both scary and weird but also sexy. And, that IS what I do...I access the emotions and let them carry the reader along. Then, fingers crossed I wait for reactions. ;->
Doomsday is drawing near...I am working on it today...and really...I want a warning on it...and on Chapter 24...because you should need tissues. I think I will be able to hear the virtual screaming. NOoooo! And all I can say is...there are 25 chapters...so keep reading to the end.
Rae
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-08 03:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-08 03:47 am (UTC)She's so very insecure just now...as we head into another tightly plotted episode with Doomsday. And she's got these mixed feelings about fewer reviews...on the one hand...she's sulky...but on the other hand she figures she can go all reckless abandon and break everyone's heart with no qualms.
And then...here you are with the love. Thanks so very much. Just remember...even if she breaks your heart in Chapter 24...there are 25 chapters in all.
Rae
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
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