The Storm and the Wolf • Doctor Who

Chapter 27

• hey guys,
I just wanted to thank you for reading my story and being patient with the slow updates. I appreciate it :)
Also, sorry that this story has dragged out so much with the current storyline. I hope you're all feeling entertained by it as it goes on.
Hey, at least Ten and Rose are back together now! :)

Thanks, and enjoy! Be sure to vote if you liked it and comment your thoughts <3

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The Doctor slammed the door of the TARDIS with a wham and sprinted to the console, his hand already running through his hair in frustration.

Rose: stumbling in, lightly clinging to the rail for support. She looked dazed, as if she didn't remember the past hour or so. Which she didn't.

Missy: arms crossed, staring at the floor grate in confusion. She looked as if she was reviewing her moves in a game, trying to figure out where she went wrong.

"Doctor, what's going on?" Rose asked — a common question on the TARDIS— as the Doctor desperately read scanners and pressed buttons and flicked switches to figure out the answer.

"Uh..." he looked up at Rose, then back at a scanner, then back at Rose, scratching the back of his head. He gestured to the jump seat. "Why don't you just sit down. I'll give you updates as they come in."

The Doctor forced a smile. He knew that the Bad Wolf had most likely drained her the majority of her energy during its possession of her body, so he was determined not to shake her up with any of the slightest upsetting news at the moment. She was fragile in mind and body now, and he was going to make sure she would be okay.

"Yes, yes, sit back and relax while the Doctor works his magic of talking nonsense until you feel better," remarked Missy, arms still crossed, eyes glaring at the Doctor.

Rose glanced from Missy to the Doctor. "So, who's this?" She pointed at Missy.

The Doctor bit his lip. He raised his eyebrows and smiled cynically at Missy. "Excuse us, Rose," he grabbed the sleeve of Missy's dark dress and pulled her toward the stairs that led to the area underneath the console room. "We're just going to have a little talk. Be right back!"

"Get off of me!" Missy objected, trying to free her arm away, but she continued to go with the Doctor.

"You have to calm down. Especially in front of Rose," he said when they were out of sight and earshot of Rose.

"What the hell is going on out there?" Missy exclaimed in a hushed voice. "I don't care about your precious human's nerves right now, I care about the universe falling apart!"

"It's been doing that for a while, you just haven't noticed," he waved her statement away, thinking about those missing planets he and Rose had accidentally neglected, as well as the very real possibility that the rift between the two dimensions had been reopened again according to the Bad Wolf and Missy. "Usually it's you trying to make it that way, remember?"

Missy shook her head, her expression changing from frantic to serious. "That is not my doing out there. And it's not the Daleks, or the Cybermen, or even the Weeping Angels. That's something new, and I have a feeling it's going to take a hell of a lot of your smarty-pants brain power," she poked the Doctor on the forehead, "to fix it."

The Doctor was silent. Of course he knew this. At first he thought it was Missy, given her recent plot to sabotage him, but he could see how genuinely confused she was. He knew before she said it that it was something he hadn't faced before.

And he knew was going to need a deux ex machina to defeat it.

He raced back up to the console room, where Rose lay curled up asleep on the jump seat. He noticed the TARDIS had raised the room's temperature as if to wrap Rose in a blanket of warmth. Seeing her resting there gave him an idea.

"Right," he spoke aloud, partly to himself and partly to Missy trudging up the stairs into the room. "Temporary solution– until we figure out this mess– we leave this dimension, go back to our own, park the TARDIS somewhere safe for the time being. It's too risky here."

"But this dimension is further in time than the other one," reminded Missy. "By the time you would be even close, whatever's going on here will have already ripped the world apart. And don't you think you should monitor this place, run some scans?"

"Scans? Now there's an idea," spoke Rose sleepily. She had sat up, probably awoken by the voices returned to the room. The Doctor remembered she was a often light sleeper. "I like this one, Doctor, she scans things before she jumps into action."

The Doctor tried to keep his expression serious, reminding himself what Missy had turned his Rose into previously: a weapon of a time entity used against him to break him, for reasons he still couldn't understand. But he couldn't help it– hearing Rose's light teasing and just seeing her sitting there yawning and smiling sleepily from her little nap like everything was normal made him happy. A smile pushed itself onto his face, and he found he was unable to keep in his light laughter.

That's what Rose did, had always done. She made things seem like normal, like everyday things to be experienced or fixed with a joke and a laid back attitude. She made the abnormal dark the normal light.

It's what had saved him from himself. And somehow, he knew: it would help him save the universe, one smile at a time.

"So what's the plan? Not that I know what's going on, but I can roll with it," said Rose.

"The Doctor suggested we go back to our dimension. I suggested we stay here to figure everything out first," said Missy.

"We could go to London," Rose suggested.

Missy and the Doctor looked at her for an explanation.

"You know, because Torchwood is there and so is Pete and my mum— oh! My mum!" Realizing that she could see Jackie Tyler again, Rose was suddenly set on staying in this universe. "Let's go to London. Please."

The Doctor looked at Rose uncertainly. He looked to Missy, who was sticking out her lower lip in a mock-puppy dog face, as if to copy Rose, who was doing nothing of the sort. But Rose was looking at him with big, pleading eyes, so he gave in.

"Fine," he said. "Torchwood could be a big help, I suppose."

Rose stood up smiling, walking over quickly to embrace the Doctor. He couldn't help it—he sighed. It had been so long since he had felt Rose's warm hug wrap him, warming him from the outside in. Kissing her forehead, he told her, "You're welcome."

Missy rolled her eyes. "Well, let's go, shall we?" She approached the console and pulled down a lever, abruptly sending the TARDIS and the people inside it tumbling toward London, England, Europe, Earth, the Milky Way, the universe (one of).