Before You Fade From Me || A Doctor Who Fanfic

Chapter 14: Raggedy man

Chapter 14: Ragedy Man 

“Where do I put the keys...?”

Rose gestures to a small hook on the wall of her apartment and he carefully sets them there, then places her jacket on the back of a kitchen chair.

Rose was mad. Then, she realizes after pacing across the scruffy apartment carpet, that she was infuriated.

Her mind drifts to Jacks conversation with her promptly after she recognized the arm in the crack.

He had sat her down in his office. A small dark room, the walls covered in photos of him and his old Torchwood team in various comical positions. A cold cup of coffee lays abandoned on a puppy mouse pad.

He gestured to a black chair in front of the desk. “We need to talk.”

Rose then had sat down and began to run her mouth faster then humanly possible. “It was him. Jack I know it was. He must have regenerated again. We should try to figure out what he grabbed, was it from the torchwood archive? Is anything missing? I’ll help you look down there maybe if we know what he took we can find out how to reach him. Or maybe you could try to pick up some readings using some alien tech or something. I can try to go into the crack and maybe-”

“ROSE. There is no chance you can see him ever again.”

Jacks firm assertion stunned her into silence. A silence fluttered in the air, settling on her ears as she felt her eyes begin to water.

“He gave you him.” Jack gestures out the window where Handy is chatting with Mac. “He gave you him so you wouldn’t go looking for him. He wanted you to be happy, HERE. Look at him.”

Rose drags her eyes to the window and watches him for a moment. The scars running over his nose have neat thin band-aids to keep the skin together. His hair is coated with dust and his ragged suit looks even worse after the encounter.

Suddenly a thought enters her mind. “Raggedy man.”

She sucks in a breath, pain clouding her mind. Why would I think that? 

She turned back to Jack. “I know. But what if he’s trying to communicate with this world, Maybe he needs our help-”

“Rose you can’t go into that crack. There’s an explosion in it and it’s never going to stop. Step in there and you step on a land-mine.”

“But you got through!”

“Ya. I did. And it killed me. But as you probably have guessed, I can’t die.”

Rose opens her mouth to argue but he interrupts. “Take him home. Enjoy your life here. It’s what The Doctor wanted.”

Handy watches her pace around the apartment for a while before asking a perfectly innocent question.

“What’s wrong?”

She flings around at him. “What makes you think-?!” She sighs. “Sorry. Rough day.” He hugs her, rubbing her back for a minute. She turns her chin up and rests it on his chest looking at him.

“I wan’t to watch a movie and eat icecream.” She mumbles.

He grins and chuckles. “Ok.”