#CHAPTER THIRTEEN WHO??? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thasmin13 · 2 years

Text

Here is chapter 2 of my thasmin fanfic, I posted chapter 1 last week or the week before if u want to go and read it first. (this chapter is abit longer mind)

---------------------------------------------------------------

The Doctor and Yaz entered the TARDIS again, Yaz closing the door behind them. "So, where are we off to?" She asked, not caring that much anymore about being tired, all she cared about at the moment was being with The Doctor. "Well I was thinking...." The blonde said, typing the memorised coorordinated in to the TARDIS. "No name, a symbol though. Closest word to it is, wait running it through the TARDIS's data banks, is unknown paradise." She said looking at the screen.

"Cool." Yaz replied. "Sounds like somewhere we can relax." The Doctor walked down the console room to Yaz. "Yeah." She said quietly. She really wanted to turn around and runaway but knew that she had no choice now and whatever it was that Dan and the TARDIS had planned, she was gonna have to face whether she liked it or not. She took a quiet deep breath as Yaz opened the door.

Dan was right, it was beautiful. From the door, they had the prettiest view of a field of bright green grass and all sorts of colourful flowers which lined it. When Yaz looked up, she saw a big blue sun hanging against the red sky. Bright silver dots where already visible up above. "Looks like a passion planet." The Doctor said before she could stop herself.

She looked round to see Yaz's confussed face. "A rare planet which is only visible to two people who love eachother, there are only three in the whole unvierse, the purpose of them is to serve as the perfect date destination for the couple, but the trick is..." She explained walking around sonicing the air, trying to avoid eye contact with Yaz. "The two people have to love eachother, and it has to be true, they can't fake it. The planet must be covered in psychic scanners. Yep the sonic agrees." She reported. They both just stood there in difficult silence. "Well" Yaz sighed. "Two best friends can still stay, can't they?" She asked. The Doctor returned her sad smile. "Don't see why not, doesn't look like there is anything here to stop us anyway."

Then out of nowhere, a blanket appeared and out of thin air, several baskets gently landed on the blue quilt. "Picnic?" Yaz asked confussed. "That must be the planet right?" The Doctor approached it cautiously. She then took out her sonic and scanned it. "Yeah, must have been able to tell we were considering staying. The sonic says it's safe to eat so we can stay if you want." The Doctor said to Yaz whose expression was unreadable, like she was thinking. Then she broke out into a huge smile. This is it, she thought, she had been waiting for this oppurtunity for...forever, since she first fell in love with the alien so many years ago, until now.

She then calmed down and said, "Only if you want to." The Doctor smiled at Yaz and sat down on the picnic blanket. Yaz sat down opposite her.

***

Several hours later, The Doctor and Yaz where still in the same part of the universe, on the same planet and they were both still on the same blanket. Except two things had changed; two of the three baskets where empty and Yaz and The Doctor were lying down beside eachother, looking up at the stars, their tummies full of food and butterflies of happiness. They had been talking the whole time, about their past adventures together, and about the other people they had met on their travels.

"...And then he kept calling me "Mrs Doctor" and I had to keep remindng him that it's just "Doctor", but would he listen, no. He kept flirting with me aswell." The Doctor told Yaz, smirking. Yaz sniggered, which caused The Doctor to snigger and soon enough the pair of them were laughing so hard that their tummies threatened to rip open. "OK, if I laugh anymore, I think that I may have to regenerate." The Doctor joked, as the pair tried to stop giggling after 10 minutes of uncontrolable laughter.

"Same." Yaz repeated, her cheeks hurting from laughing so much, not really taking in the fact that The Doctor had mentioned regeneration.

She then turned her head so she was looking at The Doctor. "But seriously, he was probably just really surprised to hear that you weren't married." The Doctor turned her head so they were looking into each others eyes, both of them no longer laughing. "I mean....I would be too, if it were me, because in my opinion...I think you are far too pretty, smart and way to amazing to be single." She admitted, searching The Doctor's face to see how she would react.

The Doctor stayed quiet then simply stated returning her gaze to the sky, "I'm not single." Yaz frowned in confussion and panic. "What? How? Since when?" She quizzed quickly, her heart racing madly. She knew The Doctor had had a wife, playing their conversation back in her head, she remembered the blonde saying "It was a long time ago, I was a different man back then." So surely that meant that something had happened to her, maybe she died, it sounded like The Doctor hadn't seen her in ages.

The Doctor chuckled and gently elbowed Yaz, "I've got you, haven't I?" She said. Yaz stared at The Doctor, trying to decide if what she had just said was a dream or not. She smiled, deciding that she didn't care if it was real or not, because as long as she and The Doctor where together, it was always going to be good enough for right there and then.

"Yeah," was all Yaz could manage. The Doctor and Yaz stared at eachother dreamily, their faces getting slowly closer to eachother's. The Doctor gazed into her crush's dark brown big eyes, knowing she was so lucky to have Yaz, knowing that she was going to cherish every moment she had with her from now on.

Yaz could feel The Doctor's soft hot breath on her face. She smiled as it tickled her, even the feel off her breath on her cheeks was amazing. Their lips were cms away from eachother when The Doctor stopped moving forward. Yaz searched her face, concerned, then The Doctor suddenly pulled away and sat up. "Come on, we're not done yet, one more basket still to finish." She claimed, while reaching for the red holder. Dan had wrote on the other side of the piece of paper to leave that particular basket until last.

Yaz watched The Doctor sadly, but tried to hide it. She sat up, copying The Doctor who then placed the red box infront of them. "You can open it." She said to Yaz, thinking that what ever was in there was probably for her.

Yaz reached out and gently lifted the lid. She gasped. "Oh no you didn't. How did you know I loved these?!" She exclaimed, lifting out a bowl of strawberries that were covered in nutella. "Well, the planet does have psychic scanners so-" "But it says they're from you." She lifted up a piece of paper with The Doctor's name on it.

Must've been Dan, The Doctor thought. This must be apart of his, and the TARDIS's, plan to make the perfect romantic setting for Yaz and her. "Yeah, I thought you'd like them, but I forget, what are they?" She asked Yaz who looked up at The Doctor with a shocked expression on her face. "You seriously don't know what these are?" The Doctor shoke her head. "Really?" Yaz asked astonished. "Right, you have to try one before we leave this planet." She said picking one up.

She held it up so The Doctor could take a bite out of it. Yaz fingers trembled slightly as she was scared that The Doctor would not take it, because she was holding it.

The Doctor looked at the strawberry then Yaz, unsure if she should or not, but this was their first official date (except from the one underwater) and she had to try for Yaz. And it's not like she didn't want to or anything, she had just never done anything like this with anyone before, but thats how much she loves Yaz. As she knew, from many experiences, new is scary and terrifying to say the least, but it was always worth it in the end, espicially if Yaz had anything to do with it.

The timelord smiled at Yaz and took a bite out of the nutella covered strawberry, making Yaz smile with relief. She sat back and put her hand over her mouth. "You like it don't you?" Yaz asked. The Doctor couldn't reply with words, her mouth was full of goodness, paradise, heaven. She nodded enthuastically. "Your welcome." Yaz said lying back down to look at the stars.

"Hey, you haven't had one yet." The Doctor said when she had finished the strawberry. Yaz sat up and watched The Doctor as she picked the most chocolate covered one out of the small pile.

Yaz sat up again as The Doctor lifted a strawberry and held it up for Yaz. Yaz smiled, she was delighted that The Doctor actually did bite out of her one when she was holding it but was even more shocked, in a good way, that she was now doing it to her. She smiled at the strawberry then at The Doctor. She leaned forward and took a bite out of the chocolate covered strawberry, letting the overwhelming deliciouness of the chocolate delight her taste buds. "Hmm!"

Yaz looked up after finishing her strawberry, noticing the blonde was staring at her. She then seen a rare glow in her eyes that she hadn't seen before. The glow continued as they continued to stare at eachother. Yaz sat up slowly, turning her body around gently to face The Doctor's so she could look at her properly. She knew something had changed, it had suddenly gone quiet and the breeze that had been gently blowing the whole time had dissapeared. This was the planet's way of saying, "I've done my bit, now you need to do yours."

Yaz looked into The Doctor's eyes, her heart thumping hard. The Doctor's own hearts were thumping hard, harder than ever, the fact that there were two of them made it even more distracting. She looked into Yaz's eyes, already having decided what she was going to do, how it was going to to go. She took a deep breath, finally ready to commit to it, and like Dan said, she stopped worrying, even if it was just for now, she stopped thinking about the future and threating about what might happen, because even if the worst was going to happen, she may aswell make every moment she had left with Yaz perfect, she didn't want either of them to leave with any regrets about what they didn't do, that they could've done, that feeling, that dread and regret being the next worst thing, but not quite beating the feeling of undescribable and unbearable saddness the pair of them will have to experience when they part ways, however that may happen.

The Doctor gazed at Yaz, noticing how awkard it was getting, if she was going to make anything happen she'd have to do it now before it was too late.

"Oh, you've got a bit of..." The Doctor mimed pointing to the side of her own mouth. Yaz loooked away embarrased. She lifted her hand and felt around one side of her mouth. "No, other side, here I'll get it." The Doctor said gently.

The Doctor put her hands in her pockets, resuracing with a blue embroidered hackie the colout of The Doctor's t-shirt. She lifted it to Yaz's face and gently wiped at the side of her mouth. Yaz closed her eyes as she let The Doctor clean the chocolate away, the soft fabric relaxing her. She then felt it leave her skin then nothing. She kept her eyes closed for another few seconds then, unsure of what had happened, was about to open them, worried The Doctor had desserted her, but then she felt something soft and light gently press against her lips, afew seconds later leaving again. She opened her eyes to The Doctor who was wearing an expression of uncertainty

Yaz smiled, reassuring The Doctor that it was OK. The Doctor smiled back at her, flooded with relief. She leaned in and kissed Yaz, this time while she was looking. Yaz kissed her back passionately, loving every moment. Yaz lifted her hand and wrapped it around one of The Doctor's braces, helping her to sustain the passion of the kiss.

They then pulled away for air, beaming at eachother. The gentle breeze had returned without either of them noticing it, and the soothing music filled the air once again.

#doctor who #thasmin #jodie whittaker #thirteen x yaz #13th doctor #mandip gill #thasmin fanfic #my fanfic #writing #my writing #chapter 2 #sorry if there's any spelling mistakes!

11 notes · View notes

regenderate-fic · 2 years

Text

Who You Pretend to Be (Who You Are): Chapter 1

Fandom: Doctor Who Ships: Thirteenth Doctor/Yasmin Khan, Thirteenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Yasmin Khan & Rose Tyler Characters: Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin Khan, Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness, Dhawan!Master Rating: General Word Count: 5,418 Other Tags: Chameleon Arch, Bad Wolf Rose, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bad Wolf as Disability, Disabled Character, Reunions

Read on AO3

Summary: The Doctor, escaping a threat, turns herself human, leaving Yaz to look after her. Of course, it gets difficult when the human Doctor, or Penny, immediately thinks Yaz is her girlfriend. And it gets even more difficult when Penny drags Yaz to a lecture by one Rose Tyler-Noble, who's brought a friend Yaz recognizes. Yaz starts putting the pieces together, befriending Rose along the way.

Written for the Doctor Who Creators Summer Exchange for SpaceBetweenGalaxies.

NOTES: okay. okay. okay. nebula i hope you like this. i saw chameleon arch fic in the prompts and immediately was like i have to revive this old fic concept (of a thirteenrose fic i wrote years ago and never published). so i rewrote it with a bunch more yaz and a liiiiiittle bit of the master (i will warn you he's BARELY present i just thought it would be fun to throw him in there) and here we are. other things i tried to include are thirteen angst, telling yaz about the timeless children, TECHNICALLY MEMORY LOSS TOO I GUESS. oh and bad wolf rose but of course i have a very specific Vision of bad wolf rose. and of course happy ending. and i feel like we've talked about fic so i tried to make it something i thought you would like. (i was originally going for quarantine au vibes honestly) (note from september felix. nebula did like it. win for me <3)

There was a lot, all things considered, that Yasmin Khan was prepared for.

She’d spent years of her life careening around the universe with a three-thousand-year-old alien, for goodness sake. She’d been everywhere and every when , seen things that most humans would never believe, had near-death experience after near-death experience. She’d had to fend for herself as a stranger out of time in the early 20th century, leading two people around the world, searching for signs of the apocalypse.

Which was just to say that, when the Doctor said she needed to turn human for a few months to avoid being found by something she called a “time dragon,” Yaz didn’t blink an eye. Even though she didn’t know “turning human” was a thing the Doctor could do. Even when the Doctor asked Yaz if she’d “look after” her. Even when the Doctor babbled something about residual memory meaning her human self would let Yaz in, and even when Yaz realized that “looking after” the Doctor meant sharing a flat, seeing her every morning, watching her go about her human life totally ignorant of her previous friendship with Yaz.

“Don’t tell anyone who I am,” the Doctor said, her eyes glued to Yaz’s. “Could be both our lives on the line.”

Yaz nodded her agreement.

They landed a bit roughly in the corner of a Cardiff park, right by a bank of flats. Yaz took the psychic paper and the Doctor’s sonic off the TARDIS, along with the gold watch the Doctor claimed had her inside of it. The TARDIS had done something tricky with timelines to get them inserted into normal Earth life: all Yaz had to do now was drag the Doctor’s unconscious body off the TARDIS and wait for her to wake up.

And this was the bit Yaz wasn’t, under any circumstances or in any universe, prepared for. The Doctor’s eyes flew open, and immediately, she jumped to her feet and kissed Yaz, full on the mouth.

Yaz flailed. It was all she could do to remember the name the Doctor had chosen for her human self.

“Do— Penny— what?”

“Can’t I kiss my girlfriend once in a while?” Penny asked, her smile earnest. She was still wearing the Doctor’s clothes, minus the jacket— blue culottes, red striped shirt, blue braces. But there was definitely something different about her. A cloud had drifted out from behind her eyes, and now Yaz could see the sun. The earnest, excitable, loving sun.

It wasn’t unwelcome.

But it was wrong. It was everything Yaz wanted, sure— but it was under false pretenses. Penny wasn’t the Doctor. Penny was a human shadow of the Doctor, a temporary person, someone who didn’t know the full weight of what she was doing.

“C’mon, let’s get home.” Penny grabbed Yaz’s hand, and Yaz followed her, pensive.

She had been prepared for a lot. But the thing she hadn’t prepared for was the human version of the Doctor— Penelope Smith— the thing Yaz wasn’t prepared for was Penelope Smith thinking Yaz was her girlfriend.

Rose Tyler-Noble had seen many unexpected things in her life. She’d hopped from universe to universe. She’d met alternate versions of herself. She’d seen the world about to end, and she’d saved it, time and time again. She’d lived longer than any human should, and she was prepared to live much, much longer.

But somehow, there was no part of her that could have expected to be asked by the local university to deliver a talk about the ins and outs of communicating with non-human species.

It wasn’t that it was out of nowhere. She’d been working with Jack at Torchwood for quite some time, to be sure, and the diplomacy angle was her main strength. She was, in her way, an expert in the field. And she was known for being an expert, in the circles of people who took the idea of alien life at all seriously— which was becoming more and more common now, in 2027. She even ran a blog about it, where she discussed a few of her less-sensitive encounters. So it made sense, really, that she might be invited to talk about what she knew.

But she’d never, in all her years of being alive, been an academic. She’d never been comfortable sitting still in a classroom, and she’d never been the kind of person who got asked to do anything at school, much less come in as an expert. She’d never even gotten her A-levels. She didn’t doubt her knowledge, of course, but something about standing in a room full of university students and faculty, people who knew how to navigate the world of academia— it made her want to run. So much so, in fact, that she almost rejected the invitation, but when Jack found out he berated her for giving up on such a good opportunity, and she gave in, laughing.

Which was how she found herself in the thrift store with Jack, trying to find an outfit that looked professional enough for the occasion without being totally wrong on her. It was a bit of a losing battle: everything felt not-quite-right.

“Not sure professionalism suits me,” she said, holding up a blazer.

“Nonsense,” Jack replied. “Everything suits you. Just got to find the right look.”

Rose made a face. “It’s not going to be blazers and pencil skirts, I’ll tell you that.”

Jack looked at the rack of clothes. He pulled out a hanger. It held a dark blue dress with short sleeves and what looked like about a knee-length skirt.

“How about this?” he asked.

Rose eyed it. “Is that professional?”

“Sure.” Jack shrugged. “Throw on a cardigan or something and you’re golden.”

Rose raised her eyebrows. “Where am I supposed to get a cardigan?”

“Not my problem.”

“Yeah, okay.” Rose gave Jack a grin. “Suppose I’ll try it on.” Leaning on her cane, she made her way to the dressing room, Jack trailing behind. He waited outside as she changed out of her T-shirt and jeans and pulled the dress over her head, staring at herself in the thin mirror. It still wasn’t the sort of thing she would usually wear— the fabric felt kind of stiff, and the neckline was a little higher than she found comfortable. But she liked that the skirt had a bit of volume, and the dark blue was one of her favorite colors. All in all, the dress would do just fine for the occasion at hand.

She stepped out of the dressing room.

“Every day I’m grateful you let me wear jeans to work,” she grumbled to Jack. She gestured at the dress with her free hand. “What do you think?”

Jack looked her up and down. “You look great, Rosie. I think that’s our winner.” There was no one else in the world who could call her Rosie, but from Jack it felt right. Familial, maybe.

“Great.” Rose smiled. “Now we’ve got that down, I can actually start figuring out what the hell I’m going to say.”

A week into the whole “living as humans in 2027 thing,” Yaz was exhausted. Exhausted, and confused, and overall just overwhelmed. She was having trouble separating Penny from the Doctor in her mind, which meant that every time Penny smiled at her, her stomach leapt as if it was the Doctor, and every time Penny kissed her, a mix of thrill and guilt rose up in her throat, threatening to choke her.

The hardest part was, there was no escape— their flat was a one-bedroom, and Penny’s sleep schedule varied wildly from Yaz’s, but they were still both sleeping in the same bed. And Penny was a cuddler. Yaz would go to bed alone, and she’d wake up with Penny’s body wrapped around hers, limbs thrown everywhere.

It was, possibly, one of her favorite ways to wake up. Until the worry and shame and wrongness started to set in, and she forced herself to extricate herself from Penny’s grasp, running to the bathroom to splash water on her face and try, desperately, to push down her feelings.

It never worked.

She was looking for a job. She was looking for a job, and so was Penny, and Penny was scheduled to start her semester in another two weeks, and that would help— it would be good, Yaz thought, to get some distance from Penny and all the complicated emotions that came with her.

But for now, she had to keep living in a flat where sometimes, the woman Yaz had a ridiculous crush on would walk into the room, kiss her on the head, and ask if she wanted a cup of tea, all without knowing her own true name.

It didn’t feel fair.

Rose had finally finished her presentation. She had PowerPoint slides and a script all ready to go, and she rehearsed in front of Jack three times, just to make sure it was presentable. She still wasn’t entirely sure she was the right person to be doing this— she was plenty good at what she did, but surely there were established academics who had more to offer in a university setting? But Jack said, over and over, that they’d be hard-pressed to find anyone with as much expertise as Rose.

“They could’ve asked you ,” Rose pointed out as she got ready for the lecture. She was looking in the mirror in her flat, doing her makeup and raising her eyebrows at the reflection of Jack behind her.

“Give yourself some credit,” Jack replied. “C’mon, Rose. You’re more than prepared for this.”

“I suppose.” Rose put down her eyeliner and turned around on her stool. “Well, at least I know I’ve got one fan.”

Jack grinned. “That you do. Come on, Rosie, we’re going to be late.”

Rose picked up her script and her cane and followed Jack out the door. It was cool outside, just on the cusp of evening, just on the cusp of autumn. They walked the short way to the bus stop, where Rose leaned on one of the barely-there benches and tried not to wrinkle her skirt too much. There was a reason she never dressed like this— she would have, back in her days on the TARDIS, maybe, when every outfit was a costume, tailored specifically to the day, and when she didn’t have to worry about how to wash anything or whether she’d wear it again. But now, she preferred clothes that were easy to wear and easy to wash, clothes she could wear in the workshop or at home or in the middle of a tense face-off with three different species where she might need to make a run for it at any moment. This dress was suitable for none of those circumstances.

Fortunately for both Rose and the dress, the bus came quickly, and Rose and Jack boarded, jostling for space among the rush-hour commuters. Rose managed to find a seat, and Jack squeezed to stand next to her, reaching up to grab a handle as the bus began to move.

The university was in the middle of the city, about a twenty-minute ride from Rose’s flat. She spent the ride looking over her script, double checking every line, clutching the paper hard enough that it began to wrinkle.

“You’ll be fine,” Jack insisted as the bus arrived at their stop. They exited amongst a gaggle of twenty-something students, emerging on the sidewalk in front of one of the university buildings. Rose bit the tip of her tongue. She could feel her heart beating too-quickly in her chest, and she took deep breaths, trying to relax.

Yaz was finally settling into her new life. By some bizarre miracle, she’d managed to land a job as a historical reenactor at a local museum— she’d impressed the hiring panel with her comprehensive knowledge of what life had been like in the Edwardian era. So every morning, Yaz would say goodbye to Penny and go off to the museum, and every evening she’d have the flat to herself as Penny worked a shift at the local cafe, and she only had to lie to Penny for an hour in the morning and a couple hours at night before going to bed. Her guilt and discomfort was still an ever-present creeping sensation underneath her skin, but at least she didn’t have to spend so much time looking Penny in the eye and acting like she remembered their first date.

The biggest shock so far, really, was that Penny had cut her hair: she’d come home one day in her first week of school with it floppy and short, and it took Yaz a full minute to process the change. The weirdest thing was that it suited Penny, and Yaz sort of thought it might suit the Doctor too. She couldn’t stop looking at it: the way Penny’s bangs fell across her face, the dark buzzed bit at the back. And of course Penny would catch her looking, and smile, and press a kiss to her cheek or her hair or her lips, and that was even stranger.

Otherwise, though, Yaz was impressed by how well the Doctor’s traits had translated into Penny’s human form. She shared the Doctor’s desire to keep as busy as possible: she’d started work on her Ph.D. — although Yaz had no intention of being in Cardiff long enough for Penny to finish a dissertation — and she’d gotten a job, and every day she came home talking about some club or another that she was thinking about joining. Just like the Doctor, she seemed absolutely tireless: Yaz couldn’t figure out where she got all her energy. Especially since, just like the Doctor, Penny did not seem to get nearly enough sleep, procrastinating her work until late into the night, waking up in time for her morning classes. Still, she seemed to be doing well, or at least as well as someone who barely remembered most of their past could be. She put on a happy face, anyway. Just like the Doctor did.

And then one morning Penny came into the kitchen as Yaz was eating breakfast, brandishing her phone. Yaz peered at the screen. There was a picture of a flier, titled Cardiff University Lecture Series: Communicating with the Extraterrestrial on Earth with Rose Tyler-Noble . Yaz almost laughed: it was too on the nose. But then again, Penny was studying astrophysics. It was only a matter of time before she wound up fixated on alien life.

“D’you want to come with me?” she asked Yaz, an open hope in her eyes. “It’s next week. The lecturer’s supposed to be a real expert.”

“Er—” Yaz stuttered, trying to push past the irony of the situation. “Yeah, all right. Might be fun. Do I have to get dressed up?”

“Not especially, I don’t think.” Penny shrugged. “I don’t know. Haven’t been to one of these lectures before. Suppose I might make a habit of it, if this first one’s any good.”

“Right.” Yaz gave the flier another look. It had a picture of a white woman with shoulder-length blonde hair— Rose Tyler-Noble, presumably? She looked young. Younger than Yaz, even, although Yaz knew better than anyone that looks could be deceiving. The woman was wearing a brown leather jacket, her hands stuffed into the pockets, and she smiled amicably into the camera. There was something friendly about her, Yaz thought, and the sort of sharpness in her eye that meant Yaz didn’t doubt her expertise for a second. She tore her eyes away, looking back at Penny. “I’ve got to get to work. See you tonight?”

“‘Course.” Penny pulled Yaz in for a quick kiss— and Yaz was never going to get used to the ease of that, the way Penny seemed not to question even for a second before touching her or kissing her. She didn’t want to get used to it, not when she was only going to be disappointed when Penny turned back into the Doctor, but the only way to keep from getting Penny suspicious was to lean into the relationship. So she squeezed Penny’s hand and gave her a quick smile before walking out the door.

The lecture hall was big.

That was the first thing Rose noticed. It was vast, and empty, but for Rose, Jack, and the faculty member who’d invited Rose to begin with— an older woman by the name of Dr. Bowen, and one of Torchwood’s main academic contacts. Dr. Bowen led Rose onto the stage, showing her the podium where she could speak and the chair where she would sit while being introduced. Rose was already blinded by the bright lights the room directed to the stage— she had never given much thought to what a university lecture hall looked like, but somehow she hadn’t expected this. It was one step down from a theater.

She kept her doubts to herself, though. One thing she had learned in the last hundred years or so was that no matter what was going on in her head, she had to present a confident outer shell, because otherwise people would underestimate her. Especially because, from the outside, there was no visual difference between her and the average twenty-year-old girl. So she laid her script out on the podium, doing her best to keep from blinking in the bright light, glancing back at the screen upon which her name and the title of her lecture were projected.

“Did you get my PowerPoint?” she asked Dr. Bowen.

Dr. Bowen nodded. She raised her hand, which was holding a little clicker, and the first slide of Rose’s presentation appeared.

“Right. Thanks.” Rose stepped away from the podium. “I think that’s it, then. I’m set.”

Penny insisted on getting to the lecture half an hour early. Yaz let it happen, following behind Penny in her slightly-nicer-than-normal slacks. Hand in hand, they entered the lecture hall, which was nearly empty— two people, including the woman from the flier and a woman who looked a little older, were sitting in chairs onstage, engaged in a deep conversation with someone sitting in one of the chairs in the front row. Every single other chair was empty.

Penny and Yaz made it halfway down the aisle before the older woman looked up.

“Penelope!” she exclaimed, standing and stepping down from the stage. “Glad you could make it.”

“Hi, Professor!” Penny waved.

Yaz smiled to herself. Of course Penelope had already endeared herself to her professors.

“Yaz,” Penny added, “this is Professor Bowen. She teaches my cosmology class. It’s brilliant so far. Professor, this is my partner, Yasmin Khan.”

“Nice to meet you,” Yaz said, holding out a hand. Professor Bowen shook it.

“Likewise.” To both Penny and Yaz, she added, “And I should introduce you to our guests. Our speaker, Rose Tyler-Noble—”

Rose waved a hand.

“And her esteemed colleague—”

Yaz didn’t hear the name. She didn’t have to. Because just then, the person sitting in the front row turned around, and Yaz felt her heart stop.

Jack Harkness.

Yaz tried to keep herself from staring. She tried to look normal, casual, as she watched Jack see Penny, as she scrutinized his expression for even the barest hint of recognition.

It wasn’t there.

She glanced at Penny, then up at the stage, where Rose Tyler-Noble was still sitting. A friend of hers on Earth called Rose , Jack had said, when explaining why he couldn’t die.

Yaz’s mind raced. Jack shook Penny’s hand, then hers, and she did her best to smile like she wasn’t trying desperately to figure out what to do. Penny sat down in the front row, a couple seats away from Jack, and struck up a spirited conversation with Jack, Rose, and her professor, leaving Yaz to sit and pretend she wasn’t having an absolute crisis.

The thing was, there were a few possibilities, if Jack was here with someone Yaz was fairly certain he’d said was trapped in a parallel universe. The first, of course, was that Yaz had stumbled upon him earlier in his timeline. That would account for both his lack of memory of the Doctor and the presence of someone who was supposed to be in another universe. The second was that he’d somehow forgotten his last encounter with the Doctor and Yaz, and Rose was either earlier in her timeline or had returned to this universe somehow.

And the third, and the one Yaz liked the least, was that Jack’s presence here was some kind of trick from the creature that had been chasing them to begin with. It would make sense: if Yaz were trying to lead the Doctor into a trap, she would use one of the Doctor’s oldest friends to do it.

She glanced at Rose, who was currently saying something about a nearby star system. All she knew about Rose was a name, an action, and a circumstance— Rose had made Jack immortal, and then at some point after that had wound up in a parallel universe. Rose could’ve been close to the Doctor, or they could’ve met once and never again. And there was no way of knowing whether the Doctor was in her past or in her future— did she know so much about aliens because she’d met the Doctor, or had she met the Doctor after doing years of research? She looked even younger in person, although Yaz noticed a cane lying next to her chair. Neither of those observations necessarily meant anything: Jack had been made immortal, after all, so there was surely a chance that Rose had too, and Yaz knew enough disabled people her age to recognize that age was not always a factor. It was just context added to a puzzle that was still in jumbled pieces on the floor of Yaz’s mind.

Yaz glanced back at Jack. Now she thought about it, he looked younger than before— that was a point for the “earlier in his timeline” theory.

At the end of the day, it didn’t really matter, though. Whatever the case, it just meant Yaz had to add more lies to her growing pile. No matter how much she trusted Jack, the Doctor had said to tell no one about her true identity— and without the full background on Jack and Rose and who they were to the Doctor and where they were in their timelines, Yaz had to fall back on secrecy.

The conversation between Penny, her professor, Jack, and Rose had died down, and as Yaz looked around she saw why: the lecture hall was beginning to fill up. She settled back into her seat, trying to ignore the unease in her stomach.

As Dr. Bowen welcomed the audience to the auditorium, Rose sat in her chair, staring out at the dim room. Jack was there, in the front row, giving her a supportive smile, and next to him was the student who’d come in early and talked to her for a bit— Penelope, Rose remembered, and her partner Yasmin. They both had northern accents, some part of Rose’s mind had registered. Rose had always liked a northern accent.

Their conversation had been brief, but interesting. Penelope had had a lot to say about the mechanics of the universe, which Rose was a little shaky on, unless it was related to her work on the dimension cannon. But the passion with which she spoke was impressive, and Rose welcomed both the chance to learn more and the distraction from her nerves.

Dr. Bowen was introducing her now. Listing off her achievements— many were classified, top secret, but even Rose had to admit that the few that were public, were impressive. Founded the diplomatic wing of Torchwood— authored peace treaties between multiple different species— wrote extensively about various encounters and experiences on her blog, and thus fostering a further acceptance of and curiosity for the unknown. Rose couldn’t help but feel pleased at what she’d accomplished. Finally, Dr. Bowen said, “And without further ado, Rose Tyler-Noble!”

Rose picked her cane up off the floor and stood, amidst applause. Dr. Bowen passed her the clicker for the PowerPoint presentation, and she walked over to the podium, blinking into the light.

“Thanks for the introduction,” she said into the microphone. Her amplified voice echoed throughout the lecture hall. “Right. So. In 2005, a spaceship flew into Big Ben. Some of you might remember that, right?”

There was a general murmur of assent. Rose clicked to her first slide: a picture of the ship, cutting a slice into Big Ben.

“There are very few people,” she said, “who know the full story of what happened that day. But more importantly, few people know that that wasn’t the first time aliens landed on Earth. And it wasn’t the last, either.” She clicked to her next slide. “For the last five years, I’ve been researching and experiencing alien encounters with Torchwood, and I’ve been writing about it on my blog, The Big Bad Wolf . Today, I’m going to talk about some of what I’ve learned.”

She continued, gaining more and more confidence with every word she spoke, spurred on by the fact that the room had fallen silent. The audience was hanging on to her every word, she realized, and slowly she gained confidence, starting to smile as she spoke. Half of what she was saying was half-truths, of course— she’d been working with Torchwood for about five years, sure, but that wasn’t the extent of her experience with aliens, and she did know the full story of what happened with the spaceship and Big Ben, but that was twenty-one years ago, for everyone in this room: she looked too young to even remember the sanitized version. But the spirit of what she said was true: she knew that with complete certainty. And she reveled in sharing it. She never had before, mostly out of the need for secrecy, but in 2027 humans were finally, finally becoming fully aware of alien life, which meant that Rose could finally talk about it without people thinking she was crazy.

At the end of the talk, there was time for questions. Rose was starting to get a bit dizzy, so she took the microphone from the podium and pulled her chair up to the edge of the stage as a moderator asked the audience for questions. Hands went up across the room, and the moderator went from person to person. Rose answered question after question, giving each one as much consideration as she could, until only one hand was up. Of course it was Penelope’s.

“Doctor Tyler-Noble,” she began, and Rose cut her off.

“Not Doctor,” she said, softly, into the microphone. “Just Rose is fine.”

“All right, then.” If Penelope was taken aback, she didn’t show it: she just barrelled into her question. “Rose. I was wondering what your overall impression was of aliens’ willingness to share their knowledge with us. You touched on it a little bit, but I was wondering whether you had more to say?”

Rose hesitated. “Well,” she said, “there’s loads of different species out there, aren’t there? Even with humans, you get all sorts. People who’ll help you with stuff, people who’ll tell you anything, and people who won’t help you or who want to hurt you. With any other species, it’s just like that, except on a much larger scale, ‘cause there are so many different species and so many individuals within each species. And then of course you run into culture and language barriers, where sometimes you don’t understand what the other person is saying… it’s complicated, I suppose.” She paused. “But some of the people I’ve met have been really amazing. I’ve learned loads, really. Just depends on who you meet.”

“Follow-up question, then,” Penelope said, before the moderator could take back the microphone. “How many different species of alien have you met, how many do you think there are total, and do you think any of them would be willing to talk to human scientists?” She spoke quickly, and there was something of the dramatic about her tone.

Caught by surprise, Rose laughed. “Think that was three follow-up questions, actually.” She glanced at the moderator. “And I think we’re running out of time. D’you want to come find me after, and we can talk?”

“All right, then.” Penelope handed the microphone back to the moderator.

“And if anyone else has any questions,” Rose added, “you can come find me, or you can send an email. It’s just [email protected]. My first name and my blog title.” She glanced around. “This was fun. Thanks, everyone, for coming, and thank you to Dr. Bowen and the university for inviting me.”

Dr. Bowen came up next to her, and Rose passed her the microphone. She went through some closing remarks— Rose wasn’t really listening. She was still absorbed in the afterglow of the lecture, catching her breath, running through everything she’d said in her head and trying to figure out whether she could’ve done any better. Finally, though, the lights came up in the audience, and people started standing, stretching their legs, and the room became noisy as everyone started talking to each other.

It only took a few seconds for Jack to pop up at Rose’s side. “You did great,” he said, smiling.

“Thanks.” Rose reached down to pick up her cane and used it to push herself to her feet, groaning at the pain in her knees. She’d pushed it, standing long enough to deliver the lecture. “Don’t expect me at work tomorrow,” she said to Jack. “I’m planning to be knackered.”

“I won’t hold my breath,” he promised.

And then Penelope was there, looking like a grinning puppy with her partner Yasmin in tow. It was actually Yasmin who spoke first: “I liked your lecture,” she said. “Really interesting. I forgot about all those alien encounters from when I was a kid. Like, Penny, d’you remember those ghosts that hung around for a while?”

Penny frowned. “I think so. Lost one of my friends to that.”

“Me too,” Rose said quietly. “Or, my friend lost me, I suppose.” She shook her head. “It’s a long story. Did you want to talk more about the lecture?”

“Suppose I was just wondering,” Penelope said slowly, “how to learn more about the sort of work you do. It’s very interesting. I’d like to incorporate it into my research if I can.”

“The best way to explain it is really just to show you.” Rose glanced at Jack. “Jack, can Penelope and Yasmin come by Torchwood sometime?”

“Don’t see why not,” Jack said. “As long as you stay out of the classified areas.”

“Yeah, yeah.” To Penelope, Rose said, “In that case, you’re both of you welcome to come by and see some of what we do. I won’t be in tomorrow, but sometime next week?”

Penelope glanced at her partner. “Yaz, d’you want to come?” She glanced at Rose. “Are you all open later in the afternoon? Yaz works weekdays.”

Yasmin startled— she had been quiet, up to this point, not really engaging in the conversation. “Oh. Sure, I’ll come.”

“Brilliant,” Penelope said. She turned back to Rose. “Monday or Tuesday work for you? They’re my days off work.”

“Sure.” Rose pulled out her phone. “Maybe you can give me your number, and we can work out a time?”

They exchanged numbers, and then with a blinding grin, Penelope said, “Right, I suppose we’ve taken up enough of your time tonight. See you later!”

“Yeah, see you.”

And then Penelope was gone, replaced by another member of the audience with another question for her. She did her best to answer, inching slowly towards the edge of the stage as she did so: she made it down the steps before more people started flocking up to her. She fielded their questions and comments as politely as she could, ignoring the ache in her knees and the dizziness that was telling her she really needed to get out of there, until finally Jack put a hand on her elbow and said, “I think it’s time for us to go.”

Rose gave him a grateful smile. She said her goodbyes, and then she walked over to say another thank you to Dr. Bowen, who told her to keep in touch, and then she and Jack were off into the night.

#doctor who #my fic #fanfiction #thirteenth doctor #rose tyler #thirteenrose #thirteen x rose #doctorrose #yasmin khan #thasmin #thirteen x yaz #who you pretend to be (who you are)#chaptered #chameleon arch #bad wolf as disability #bad wolf rose #angst #reunions

3 notes · View notes