Tenrose Short Stories

#2- Hope

"So where are we then, Doctor?" Rose frowned, and scrunched her nose up at the smell. "I thought you promised me ancient Egypt?"

He laughed, a bit nervously. "Looks like I overshot. By a lot."

"I'd say." Rose grumbled. The Doctor thought her angry face was cute. The way her whole face scrunched up slightly- "Well come on, then."

They'd found themselves in a cupboard- as usual. Despite being slightly annoyed, Rose could never just leave a place without looking around. Same for the Doctor. Sure, they often found nothing interesting and left, but there were those times...

Rose opened the thick metal door with a clang and stepped out into a metal hallway, hardly a walkway. Cables and pieces of small machinery littered the floor all the way through the cramped space to the next doorway. The Doctor peered over Rose's head and observed the same. They did their best not to trip as they made their way to the next door. Rose attempted to open the door, but found she couldn't this time. The Doctor leaned around her, as the hallway was not big enough for them to shift places, and opened the door. Rose blushed slightly as their bodies brushed. The Doctor grinned slightly. He'd seen her blush, but she didn't know because she thought she'd hidden it with her hair.

Both of their heads snapped to the other side of the open door when they heard a small child crying. On the other side of the door was another hallway making a right angle with the one they were in. This hallway was a bit bigger and the floor was less cluttered. A small figure was curled up against the wall down the hall a little ways. It was shaking with sobs and Rose felt her heart squeeze for the child's pain.

"Hello?" She called softly as she approached it. "Are you alright?" She'd reached the child who'd stopped crying at the sound of her voice, but didn't move. She crouched down next to them and whispered, "It's okay, we can help."

The child looked up at Rose. It was a girl with green skin and little bumps down the middle of her face. Her grey eyes were filled with tears and she looked very sad. "It's my mom- I don't know where she is. I don't even know if she survived!" The girl covered her face and began to sob again. Rose lightly touched her back, a reassuring touch.

"Survived what?" The Doctor asked bluntly and Rose sent him a hard look, as if to say 'Shut up'. He blinked, opened his mouth to say more, then shut it. Rose nodded.

"The death of the planet!" The child sobbed out. Rose rubbed her back soothingly.

"It's fine, I promise. The Doctor and I will help you find her, don't you worry! Could you possibly tell me your name? We're- well, I'm Rose and the idiot over there is The Doctor."

"Idiot!" He scoffed.

"My name is Hope." She said. She'd stopped crying. She still looked sad, but the mood seemed to have lightened.

"Well hi there Hope. And where might we be?" Rose asked sweetly. The Doctor smiled slightly to himself. She was wonderful with kids. Well, people in general, really.

"The refugee ship circling the remains. Refugee 1." Hope replied. "How do you not know that?"

Before Rose could come up with an explanation, The Doctor said, "We're not locals."

Hope didn't seem surprised.

"Do you want to know something, Hope?" Rose asked.

"What?"

"The Doctor and I will help you find your mum. She's alive. You know how I know that?" Rose smiled slightly at the girl. She was gorgeous. The Doctor sighed.

"How?" The girl asked, truly puzzled.

"Because if your mum was gone, you'd know it, in there." Rose pointed to Hope's midsection. "Right in your insides." She didn't want to say heart because she had no clue where Hope's species had their hearts. "And you don't feel it, do you?"