Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Rose and Ten The Inbetweens and backstories ❯ Chapter Four ( Chapter 4 )

British Museum,

Great Russell Street, London.

March 2007.

Mickey led Rose, and Jackie, past rows of carved Roman heads, hundreds of sightless eyes watching their progress, never hesitating, as if he knew the way by heart. They had lost the Doctor in the Egyptian gallery, examining the Rosetta Stone. Mickey had phoned Rose when he first found it, and had kept returning while he'd waited for her and the Doctor to come and see it.

They passed some sarcophagi, and a giant stone foot that seemed almost too `Monty Python' to be in such a serious place as a museum. Then they came to a row of statues, sculpted human forms, some headless, some armless, but all possessed of a shining white dignity despite their misfortunes.

Mickey stopped. `There you are,' he said. He was grinning, like a dog who'd just fetched her a stick and was waiting for a grateful response. Rose looked at the statue in front of her, a marble priestess with a veil. It was lovely, but not all that exciting.

Then Jackie gasped. `Oh, my God. I don't believe it!'

Rose transferred her gaze to the next sculpture along. And she gasped too. It was a perfect stone replica - of herself.

And, according to its sign, it was nearly 2,000 years old. Once she had recovered from the initial shock, she got quite excited. `That's brilliant!' she said. `You realise what this means? We must be off to . . .' she checked, `second-century Rome. How brilliant is that?'

`Blimey,' said a voice from behind. `Reminds me of a girl I once knew. Wonder whatever happened to her.' The Doctor had caught up with them and he gave Rose a smile that could probably melt even a marble statue. She grinned at him.

Jackie was reading the sign under the sculpture. `Here, it says it's a statue of the goddess Fortuna,' she said. `Don't tell me I've given birth to a god. Howard'll never believe it.'

Rome , Italy

120 AD.

The Doctor and Rose sat in a grove outside the villa owned by the old Roman called Gracilis. The sun sparkled across the pond, throwing glitter ball reflections across the white marble of Rose's statue. The Doctor petted a peacock, which made a mewing noise like a cat. He mewed back at it.

They'd been sitting alone for a while when Gracilis joined them again. He begged their pardon, but he wanted to ask them something.

`That girl, Vanessa,' he said. `She was a true reader of the stars, wasn't she?' He was referring to a young woman who had been transported to ancient Rome by a GENIE (Genetically Engineered Neural Imagination Engine), whose purpose was to grant all wishes it hears.

Rose wasn't sure what to say, but the Doctor nodded. `I suppose you could say that.'

Gracilis was quiet for a moment, thinking. Then he continued, `I think she was sent by the gods to aid us. And I think you too were sent by the gods.'

Rose laughed. `No, really, we weren't. Honest.'

`In that case,' Gracilis said, looking at the statue, `you must be gods yourselves.'

`No, we're not!' Rose began, but Gracilis had risen and was moving off.

`I will honour you all my life,' he said.

`Gracilis!' Rose had suddenly thought of something.

He stopped and turned back. `Yes, my lady?'

`Just . . . no sacrifices, OK?'

Gracilis smiled and bowed.

Turin , Italy .

1849 years later.

`Okay, so why are we in Turin in the late 1960's,' Rose asked the Doctor, having only just got back from 120's Rome.

`An' why are we lookin' like a business man and his secretary?' Rose asked him. She was wearing an orange, two piece suit of a jacket and knee length skirt, and black shoes, and the Doctor was wearing a light grey suit with a white, open necked shirt and black shoes.

`You'll see,' he said mysteriously. `Just keep your eyes open and I think you might recognise some people . . . and some cars,' he said, without trying to give too much away.

A man with a clipboard had directed them to a table next to a magazine stand, outside a restaurant in the Galleria San Federico, which Rose thought was a bit odd, but put it down to how the Italians did things around here. She noticed that there were a number of areas roped off, and was that a film crew down at the end of the Galleria?

She was just about to ask the Doctor what was going on, when she heard the roar of three car engines echoing in the covered Galleria. The Doctor gave her an excited grin, before turning around to look at a red Mini Cooper speeding down the pedestrian Galleria, with a white and blue Mini, close on its tail.

They leapt to their feet and stood back as the cars drove past, and took the corner to their left.

`What the . . .' Rose said as they sped by.

`CUT!' someone shouted at the end of the Galleria. `That's a wrap, thank you everybody.'

Rose laughed. `Oh my God, have we just been in . . .?'

`The Italian Job? Yep. `You're only supposed to . . .' he started to say.

`. . . Blow the bloody doors off,' she finished with laughter.

`It's a classic, one of the best car chase sequences ever filmed,' he said with a grin. `And one of my favourites.'

`I don't believe it . . . the Italian Job, THE Italian Job . . . I'm in the Italian Job,' she said, trying to comprehend it all. `So is this a change of timeline events thing, or have I always been in the film?'

`Er, nope . . . and yep,' he said cheekily.

`So all the years that I've watched that film, I've been watchin' myself?'

`Yep, and me of course,' he reminded her.

She grabbed his hand. `C'mon, you're gonna show me in the TARDIS.' She needed to watch the film and see if she could spot them.

In the TARDIS living room, they watched the film on the large, wall mounted TV, drinking Coke, and eating popcorn, as though they were on a date in a cinema.

`Here it comes,' the Doctor said. `Get ready . . . there!'

Rose squealed with laughter, hit the rewind, and watched it again . . . and again . . . and in slow motion. `That is unbelievable; I've watched that film with Mum loads of times and never spotted that before.'

`Why would y . . . hang on, your mum?'

`Yeah, it's one of her favourite films.'

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. `Blimey, who'd have thought it, me, and your mum having something in common?'

Rose rolled her eyes at him and gave him her teasing, tongue through the teeth smile. `You already have . . . me.'

They watched the end of the film where Michael Caine says, `Hang on lads . . . I've got a great idea', and Rose looked at the Doctor. `Can you take me home?' she asked him. `I've just got to show Mum this.'

He smiled at her. `Yeah, okay.' Any chance to show off to Jackie Tyler.

48 Bucknall House.

Powell Estate, Peckham.

April 2007.

Jackie Tyler went into the kitchen of her flat, and glanced at the grainy picture of her daughter's statue, which was sellotaped to a cupboard. It was a shame they didn't do a proper postcard of it, but Mickey had taken a photo on his phone and had it blown up for her, and that was better than nothing. Her daughter. Her beautiful daughter, Rose.

Jackie started singing to herself as she opened the cupboard to get out a microwave meal for one, when her phone started ringing; the caller display said `Rose'. Her daughter was in the TARDIS, and was calling to tell her that she was coming home, and that she'd got something to show her.

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Rose let herself into the flat with her key and dropped her rucksack of dirty washing in the hallway. `Mum, we're back,' she called out.

`Oh Sweetheart, I was so pleased when you phoned and said you were comin'.' She hugged Rose and gave her a kiss on the cheek. `All that travellin' seems to agree with ya, yer look great. How was ancient Rome, did ya find the bloke who did yer statue? Have ya been havin' a good time, `as he been keepin' yer outta danger?' she rattled on, giving the Doctor a questioning look.

`We've been havin' a great time Mum, that's partly why we're here,' she replied, moving into the living room where Mickey was waiting for her.

`Hello Babe,' Mickey said, unsure of the reaction he'd get. Jackie had called him soon after Rose had phoned, to tell him that she was coming home.

Rose saw the uncertainty in his expression, and felt guilty that she'd reduced him to this. They may no longer be a couple, but they were still best mates.

Rose went over and gave him a big, reassuring hug. `Hiya Mickey, how are ya?'

`I'm good thanks, you look pretty good yerself.'

The Doctor squeezed past Jackie, who was still giving him a disapproving look (although it wasn't as hostile as it used to be), and sat down on the sofa.

`So Sweetheart, what was it that you wanted to show me, you sounded all excited on the phone.' Jackie was scanning her finger looking for a tell tale engagement ring.

`Oh, you are gonna love this, it's been under our noses for years. Have ya still got the video with `The Italian Job' on it?'

Jackie mentally breathed a sigh of relief, no alien wedding then, but then became puzzled by her question. `Er, yeah, it's in the draw under the video,' she told her.

`Great, we want to show you somethin' in the film,' she said as she rummaged on her hands and knees in the draw. She found one labelled, `Rose - Dirty Dancing', and another, `Mum - Cliff in Concert - DO NOT ERASE'. She then found the one she was looking for, `Mum - Italian Job - DO NOT ERASE'.

She put it in the video and pressed play.

`If we're watchin' a film, I'll get some beers out the fridge,' Mickey said, and went into the kitchen.

`Ooh, reach some of the crisps, Doritos, and those cheesy nibble things as well Love,' Jackie called through the serving hatch. Mickey came back with a four pack of beer that he kept in Jackie's fridge for when he called around to see her and catch up on any news from Rose.

They watched the film, singing `we're the self preservation society', each time the tune was played. They got to the part where the Mini Coopers were loaded with the gold bullion in the Palazzo Madama and driven away.

`It's comin' up,' Rose told them. `Watch closely.'

The cars drove along the Palazzo Carignano down the steps, and along the Galleria dell'Industria.

`Here it comes,' Rose said excitedly.

One minute and ten seconds into the chase, the cars sped down the Galleria San Federico, the red Mini leading the way. Before it turned left, a couple on the right of the screen stood up and let the cars zoom past.

`THERE! Did you see it?' Rose asked.

`See what? Mickey asked.

`Oh my God,' Jackie said, she'd spotted the pair of them as the Mini shot past them. She used the remote to search back and play it frame by frame. `Is that really you?' she asked.

`Wha? That's you innit?' Mickey asked, open mouthed.

`Nah, it's Rose all right,' Jackie said. `But the bloke in the film's got nicely combed hair.'

`Oi, in the room,' the Doctor said.

`Well, look at that bird's nest on yer head,' she said with a smirk.

`Mum!' Rose said in his defence.

`So you actually went back to when they were makin it, and got yerself in the film?' Mickey said.

`Yeah,' they both said together, nodding their heads enthusiastically.

`An' you've always been in it then?'

`Yeah.'

`Bloody `ell,' is all he could manage to say, as he tried to get his head around it.

They finished watching the film as Rose told them about Turin, and how they'd gone to look at the film locations. She also told them about the last time they had seen her in the British Museum, when Mickey had found the statue Fortuna, which had been modelled on her.

She laughed when she told them that it was the Doctor who had sculpted the statue from memory, leaving Mickey completely gob smacked. Jackie on the other hand, being her mum and having seen the detail in the statue, was concerned that he knew her body in that much detail. Eventually, all the beer and the nibbles were gone, and Jackie looked over at Rose.

`Will you be stayin' over tonight you two?' she asked them, in a way that said `please stay for a bit longer'.

Rose looked over at the Doctor. `I'll ask the designated driver.'

The Doctor smiled at her. `Yeah, go on then.' He knew that they needed some mother and daughter time together.

“The spare rooms yours if you want it,” Jackie said.

`Ooh, that'll bring back some memories,' the Doctor said with a grin and a waggle of his eyebrows, remembering last Christmas when he had regenerated.

'Brilliant! An' in the mornin' I can phone some of my old mates and arrange a get together," Rose said enthusiastically. It had been a while since she had seen the old crowd, and she had a bit of catching up to do.

'I don't think Keisha will be up to going out with ya,” Jackie said.

`Really, why not?' Rose asked. Keisha was always up for a night out. She was one of her wildest, loudest and craziest mates.

`Oh, you didn't hear about her brother, did ya?' her mother said, a sad look on her face. `He was lost at sea when his ship went down with all hands. She's in bits about it.'

`Oh my God . . . not Jay?' Rose was shocked by the news. She'd had a school girl crush on Jay Selby when she was fourteen, and had shyly had a dance with him at the end of term disco before he left to join the navy. It was when he left school that she started hanging out with Mickey.

The Doctor gave them an enquiring look, and Jackie explained. `Jay was an old school friend of Rose's. He joined the navy when he left school. His ship sank a few months ago with all hands lost.'

`Oof. That's a bit of hard luck,” the Doctor said in sympathy.

`I'll have to go an' see her,” Rose said. 'Do you mind?' she asked the Doctor hesitantly. She knew he didn't like these domestic situations.

'No,' he lied. 'I'll come along. A bit of moral support as they say.'

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`I'm so sorry, Keish.' Rose sat on the threadbare sofa and held her old mate close. She couldn't think of anything to say that didn't sound useless and hollow, but she kept trying. `I'm really, really sorry. When Mum told me, I just . . . Well, it's so hard to take in.'

Keisha sniffed noisily and pulled away. She was one of Rose's old clubbing crowd, wildest and loudest and craziest of the lot. She looked totally gorgeous when she was glammed lip. But right now her black curls were ratted and her light brown skin was snail-trailed with snot and tears.

`Jay was my brother,' she murmured. `And now . . . he's just gone.'

There was a picture of him on the cheap Ikea sideboard - a big, grinning, burly boy. The chipped, imitation pine looked too thin to support such a warm and healthy figure.

`Have they told your mum? The navy, I mean.'

`Doubt it. Got no address for her, no phone number . . . She wouldn't care anyway. Got her other family now.'

`Yeah, but she still . . . I mean, she must . . .' Again, Rose found herself trailing off. This wasn't helping.

Keisha wiped her nose on a sodden tissue. “Missing in action,” they told me. Yeah, right. His ship's been towed up the Thames in, like, a million bits. Why can't they just own up that he's been killed and they can't find enough of him to send back home?'

`Keish, there's always a chance -'

`It's been three months now, and nothing. Nothing left of anyone on that ship.'

Rose felt so weird inside. She'd had a crush on Jay when she was fourteen. That was five years ago and, daft though it was, she'd never really been able to talk to him properly since. Now she never would, and it didn't seem real. So much had happened in her own life since then . . . She'd seen so much death in so many far-flung times and places, she was sort of hardened to it. Now someone from her old life here in London was never coming back, and Keisha was showing her the repercussions up close and personal. Rose found she had no idea how to relate to it.

The Doctor was being no help at all of course. He just stood there, staring out of the window. She wasn't sure if he was sulking because she'd dragged him along here today, or if he was actually just enjoying the grey concrete view of the surrounding high-rises from here on the third floor. Who could tell? She'd known him for ages now, but still she couldn't always read his moods.

`Who's your mate?' Keisha whispered, wiping her nose.

Rose shut her eyes. "A 900-year-old alien, actually. He lives in a police box that's really a spaceship called the TARDIS and we fight monsters and save planets. It's brilliant, you should try it". Maybe not, she decided. `He's just the Doctor.'

Keisha shot her a suspicious look. `I don't need a doctor.'

`Not that sort of doctor, Keish, he's . . . Well, he's . . .' Rose floundered, looked over at him in his brown pinstripe suit and grubby converse, hoping for inspiration. `He's sort of like those disk doctors down the big PC shops. Good with computers and that.'

`Oh.' Keisha nodded, apparently satisfied. `You met him when you went away that time, yeah?'

`Kind of.'

`Suppose you must have met all sorts, living abroad for a year . . . while your poor old mates left behind were worried sick.'

Rose caught the disapproval behind the smile. `We thought that loser Mickey had topped you or something.'

`Long time ago now.' Rose hid behind a rueful smile, ringing inside. When she'd first gone off into space and time, the Doctor claimed he could bring her back to Earth the day after she'd left. But he'd messed up. They'd come back a whole twelve months later.

`You could have told us you were going.' Keisha nudged her. `Better yet, could have taken us with you! And you've been back in the country for months and months, ain't you? Where've you been? It ain't been the same round here without you, babes. I've really missed you.'

`It's good to see you too,' Rose said. `I'm just sorry it took . . . something like this to put my bum in gear and make me get my act together.'

`S'all right. Nothing really lasts, does it?' Keisha shrugged, staring into space again. `Friendships . . . family . . .'

Rose shook her head. `Hey, come on, Keish. Look, I'm gonna be around for a few days -'

`A few days!' The Doctor snapped into life, whirled round, gave her a look as sharp as his angular features. Then he realised Keisha was watching him and his face softened. He started nodding. `Yeah. A few days, course we are. Thought so.'

When Keisha looked away he grimaced and mouthed at Rose, `A few days?'

Rose gave him an "and your problem is . . . ?" look back, then squeezed Keisha's hand. `So anyway, I'll be around. A proper mate. We can do stuff - go out, or . . . maybe just stay in, yeah? Watch videos or something.'

`What did Jay do in the navy?' the Doctor asked abruptly, trying to interact with the grieving friends.

Keisha gave him a startled blink. `He did something in the ships stores . . . spare parts and stuff.'

`Naval Stores Sub Department.' The Doctor wore a proper boy's smile. `Oh, that's a brilliant job. There are 42,000 spare parts on your average frigate - think what you could make with that lot! And they call those stores assistants Jack Dusties, don't they? Why is that?'

Rose realised that it was his very alien attempt to try and lighten the mood, and although she loved him for it, it wasn't really appropriate.

`Imagine if your name was Jack Dusty and you became a Jack Dusty! And then if Jack Dusty the Jack Dusty went to the planet Jacdusta in the Dustijek nebula and joined their navy, he could . . .'' He stopped, realising that Keisha was staring at him as though he had two heads or something.

That stare wasn't too bad really. It was the glare that Rose was giving him that was bad. It was her “pack it in glare”, and he reckoned on the "Rose Tyler Glare-ometer" scale, he was probably hitting an eleven right about now.

He couldn't help it of course. If Rose was feeling awkward after only a couple of years of travelling with him, imagine what nine hundred years of it would do to her. Well, not nine hundred, humans didn't live that long. Maybe ninety, if you were lucky. Well . . .

`Chips!' he said suddenly as a distraction. `Chips would be good now. Who wants chips?'

`Sounds great,' said Rose quickly. She pressed a fiver into his hand, in case he tried to pay with a twenty-zarg note or something. `The Chinese round the corner does them good and greasy.'

`In foil trays, I suppose?' The Doctor looked suddenly crestfallen.

`You know, chips have never tasted the same since they stopped wrapping them in newspaper. I liked them in newspaper.'

`Well, there's a newsagent's next door. Buy a paper with the change on your way back!'

He perked up. `Good thinking. Yeah, nice one. OK! Back in a

minute.' He picked his way through the clutter in the poky flat to the front door and slammed it closed behind him.

Rose could relax at last. `Sorry. Sometimes he gets a bit . . .'

`Fruit-loops?'

`Hyper.'

Keisha nodded. `He's cute, anyway. Not really like your mum described, though.'

Rose smiled to herself. `You could say he's pretty Indescribable, yeah.'

They sat in silence for a while, the atmosphere lightened a little by the Doctor's odd outburst. It was while they were sitting there, trying to think of what to say, when the wet ghost of Jay Selby appeared in the corner of the room.