ULTIMATE Doctor Who Book of Randomness (COMPLETED)

Series 2 Episode 5: The Girl in the Fireplace (Part 7)

P.O.V: Rose Tyler

I headed towards the tapestry where the Doctor directed me to. I was going to speak to Reinette, to warn her that they were coming. I went to a window where she was 32, five years before they were coming. 

I was in a music room, filled with instruments of all sorts. Reinette was there, and when I entered her eyes widened and she took a few steps back.

"Madame de Pompadour, please, don't scream or anything. We haven't got a lot of time. I've come to warn you that they'll be here in five years." 

"Five years?" She said softly. 

"Some time after your 37th birthday. I, er, can't give you an exact date. It's a bit random. But they're coming. It's gonna happen. In a way, for us, it's already happening. I'm sorry, it's hard to explain. The Doctor does it better." 

"Then be exact, and I will be attentive." Reinette placed her hands in front of her and waited for me to go on.

"There isn't time." I said. This was happening right now for me, I couldn't doddle. 

"There are five years." Reinette said defiantly. I couldn't imagine what she was going through right now.

"For you. I haven't got five minutes." 

"Then also be concise!" I took a deep breath, and wondered where to start.

"Er, there's, say, a ship, sort of a sky ship, and it's full of well, you. Different bits of your life in different rooms, all jumbled up. I told you it was complicated. Sorry." I hoped she got it. I saw her pause and study my words, then she took a go.

"There is a vessel in your world where the days of my life are pressed together like the chapters of a book, so that he may step from one to another without increase of age while I, the weary traveler, must always take the slower path." 

My mind raced as I tried to contemplate how smart she was. The Doctor was right about her, she really was brilliant.

"He was right about you." I said aloud to her. 

"So, in five years these creatures will return. What can be done?"

"The Doctor says keep them talking. They're kind of programmed to respond to you now. You won't be able to stop them, but you might be able to delay them a bit."

She seemed sad, and she took a deep breath. "Until?" 

"Until the Doctor can get there." 

"He's coming, then?" Her eyes lit up. 

"He promises." I assured her. He never breaks his promises.

"But he cannot make his promises in person?" she said, deflated. 

"He'll be there when you need him. That's the way it's got to be." I said, with a little more force than intended.

"It's the way it's always been. Monsters and the Doctor. Seems you can't have one without the other."

I couldn't help but agreeing with her. I'd met the Doctor because monsters were there, if they hadn't I would've never met him. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach as I thought about never meeting the Doctor. I pushed that thought away and looked back at Reinette.

"Tell me about it. The thing is, you weren't supposed to have either. Those creatures are messing with history. None of this was ever supposed to happen to you."

Reinette's lit up once more. "Supposed to happen? What does that mean? It happened, child, and I would not have it any other way. One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel." 

That angel being the Doctor, I presumed. In a way, the Doctor was my angel as well. 

"Rose!" I heard Mickey's voice call from behind the tapestry. I stood up and ran over to him, not realizing Reinette was following me. 

"Rose! The time window where's she's 37. We found it. Right under our noses." He said, and I walked through the tapestry, and so did Reinette. 

"No, you can't go in there, the Doctor will go mad!" But it was too late, she was already in. She looked around in awe and horror, seeing the blinking lights of the console and the rubble everywhere. 

"So this is his world." She said. We all whipped our heads to the left when we heard screams in teh distance. 

"What was that?" She said, frightened. 

"The time window. The Doctor fixed an audio link." Mickey said as we listened. 

"Those screams, is that my future?" She asked. 

"Yeah, I'm sorry." I said softly. She held her head up and I saw a change in her eyes. 

"Then I must take the slower path." She was about the leave when we heard a voice coming from there as well.

"Are you there? Can you hear me? I need you now! You promised! The clock on the mantle is broken! It is time!"

Reinette's eyes widened as she heard. "That's my voice."

"Rose, come on, we've got to go. There's a problem." Mickey said urgently, and began to walk back to the Doctor. 

"Give me a minute." I said, and turned to Reinette. "Are you okay?" 

"No, I'm very afraid. But you and I know, don't we Rose, that the Doctor is worth the monsters." Ans with those words she headed back into the tapestry, into her own world. 

"Doctor! Doctor!" 37 year old Reinette called in terror.