Travellers' Hearts {The Wattys 2017}

Chapter 5

They arrived in a small street in central parallel-London. Kate let go of the Doctor's hand and looked around. 'Doctor, do you have an address or something like that?', she asked him. When he didn't respond, she turned around. The Doctor had sat down on the pavement and was holding his head in his hands. Kate hurled over to him and placed one hand on his shoulder. 'Doctor, are you alright?', she asked quietly. 'Sick', he whispered back. Kate nodded. Almost everyone got sick the first time they teleported somewhere, and the fact that they had entered a dozen of parallel universe to get to this one didn't make it any better. To be true, it had taken her a month of daily practice to be able to stand more or less steadily immediately after teleportation. 'Don't worry', she addressed the Doctor about it. 'A lot of people don't feel comfortable with teleportation in the beginning.' He inhaled a deep breath and tried to stand up, but lost balance and had to be supported by Kate, who was next to him just in time to prevent him from tripping over. 'Well, I can't possibly see why anyone would have a problem with it', the Doctor mumbled ironically, forcing a weak smile. Kate looked around. For a second, she thought of calling a cab, but dropped the idea immediately since it would probably not help against travelling sickness at all. 'Can you walk?', she asked calmly. The Doctor wrapped his coat around him and nodded unsteadily. Kate assured him once more that he'd be fine, then wrapped her arm around his back to support him as they walked only a few metres to the main road.

At the road, Kate stopped to look to her left and right. 'Any idea where Rose could be?' The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the air with it. When it started blinking, he pointed into that direction and he and Kate headed off, neither of them saying anything as they passed several small cottages and yards. After a very well ten minutes walk, they arrived in front of the last house in that direction before the road parted into two different directions. 'Is it this one?', Kate broke the silence between them. 'Yes, I think so', the Doctor said, nodding. He had stopped and was looking around, avoiding her gaze. 'Okay, so, shall we just ring the doorbell or...' Kate broke off to give the Doctor some time to think it through. After all, this was his big reunion with Rose, and she understood what it meant to him. 'Oh, I don't know!', he said, exhaling sharply and taking a step back. 'We could come back later! Why now, when there's so much to see?', he went, desperately trying to force himself to sound cheerful, attempting to turn his back and walk off the property, but Kate caught his sleeve and pulled him back. 'Doctor-' 'I'm actually really hungry, now that I think about it', he rambled on. 'Doctor...' 'Why don't we-' 'DOCTOR!' He whirled around at last one, a look of shame on his face, like he was a kid who had just been caught nicking sweets from the Christmas table by his mother. 'I don't want to go in there', he said quietly. 'I'm afraid... I'm scared that Rose might be angry, that she could've forgotten me. What if I see her only to have her tell me that she never wants to see me again?' He looked at Kate, and the honesty of his words made her treats soften as she shook her head. 'She won't', Kate responded gently. 'She misses you, I know she does! Believe me.' Her last words ended in a whisper, and according to the pleading look on her face she had made the Doctor's decision for him. He sighed. His hearts heavy, he returned to the door and ringed the doorbell. He closed his eyes and counted. One. Two. Three. Fou-

'What the hell?!' Jackie's eyes were widely open and there was a look of sheer terror in them. 'Hello,
Jackie!', the Doctor said with a broad smile, and he had to be a very good actor since Kate couldn't see an ounce of nervousness anymore. Jackie rubbed her eyes, and for a moment, she looked like she would faint. Then, she stretched out her arm and slapped him. 'A month!', she shouted at him. 'It took you a month to get back! Have you got any idea what hell Rose went through when you left her? How dare you!' The Doctor looked so very pained now, and Kate fought with the urge to shove Jackie aside, and the only thing stopping her from doing that was that she didn't want to spoil the Doctor's and Rose's reunion any more. However, it was no use. Rose had heard her mother shout something and rushed down the stairs to check if she was alright. Hurriedly, she ran past her mother and stopped right in front of the Doctor, her mouth and eyes wide open. The Doctor could feel his hearts race in his chest. This was not how he had imagined it, this was not anywhere near to how he had imagined seeing Rose again. It was so wrong, so very wrong. This was a nightmare! And it felt even worse to him than in his nightmares, because this time, it was real. Naturally, he wasn't prepared for Rose's reaction at all, either, because in all the movies and books he had seen and read, when you saw someone you thought you'd never see again, you burst into tears and hug them and it's all cozy and happy and so on. No one ever looks at you for a second and then turns on their heel and runs back into the house. Why are stories never realistic? Kate had originally planned to not get involved too much and let things naturally evolve, but at this point, she decided she had to do something, so she grabbed the Doctor's hand and ran with him through the door after Rose, who had run upstairs into her room and shut the door. 'Rose, please! Let me in!', the Doctor cried out, banging on her door. From the inside, they could hear her sob. Kate took a deep breath before she reached into the Doctor's pocket, grabbed the sonic screwdriver and held it onto the door lock. There was a click as the lock unlocked and the door sprang open. There they were, the Doctor and Kate on the one side of the doorsill, Rose on the other. They seemed to have been standing there for an eternity, when Rose stepped over to them slowly and embraced the Doctor closely. Tears were streaming down their faces and dripping onto their shoulders. 'I missed you! Oh, I love you, Doctor', Rose finally said, stepping back one small step to look at him. 'Rose Tyler, me too. Oh, and quite a lot! Rose, if only you knew how much I have missed you!'

Half an hour later, Kate, the Doctor and Rose were all sitting in the latter's room. The Doctor had quickly explained to Rose that his new companion had had an idea of how to bring him to this parallel world, careful not to mention how they had met or who Kate was. Rose had immediately noticed that he was hiding something from her, but had waited until he had told her the story from the point where Kate had teleported them to this universe to the moment he had rung the doorbell. He finished explaining to her, and she nodded, but not looking a bit satisfied. She looked coolly at Kate. 'So, Kate, tell me: Who are you?', she hissed, not bothering to hide her jealousy from anyone. Kate looked at her, slightly annoyed by now. She understood very well that Rose had every right to be jealous at her, but thought that she could at least make an effort to not show it that obviously, since she and the Doctor would have unlikely ever met if it hadn't been for her. Kate, however, wasn't in the mood for having an argument with anyone right now, so she decided that it would be best if she kept acting nicely towards Rose and not start a war, and simply gave her her warmest smile as she told her: 'You probably don't remember me, but we've met long ago. I met you and the Doctor - the different-looking Doctor in the church. You recall our meeting at the wedding?' Rose suddenly remembered the ginger girl who had sacrificed - or, at least, seemingly sacrificed herself to save the guests as the Reapers had attacked them. 'But she's not dead...' The thought immediately lead to another, and in spite of the fact that the Doctor had told her that he was the last of his kind, she couldn't help but ask herself if this Kate girl maybe was another Time Lord. She could snap back at her, but took a look at the Doctor's face and decided against it. Something was going on between those two, and before Rose knew what exactly that was, she wouldn't take the risk of them being annoyed by her. So, instead she just nodded politely towards Kate and offered her a smile.

'Yes, I remember you. How did you survive, though? I-' She broke off, scared of the truth. What if the Doctor really had found another Time Lord, a Time Lord girl? To her relief, Kate helped her out by explaining: 'I'm not human, but I'm not a Time Lord eiter. I'm from another planet, and immortal.' 'Immortal?', Rose interrupted her. She was baffled. Not only had the Doctor found another companion, which was acceptable, since he hadn't known he'd see her ever again, no, he had also found himself someone of his lifespan, if not more. Kate nodded, but to Rose's surprise, she looked sad. 'Okay, but where are you from?', Rose wanted to know, now slowly getting curious. Kate sighed and shook her head. 'Doesn't matter', she murmured, turning red. 'Oh, but it does! I really want to know', Rose assured her, thinking that she had been to harsh on the girl and that that had caused her to think that she should better be silent. Kate, of course, had other reasons for not telling her. Even after all these years, it still hurt her to think of her home planet, once so beautiful, but now abandoned since two millenia, with no one left but her alone. To her rescue came Jackie Tyler's 'dinner's ready' from downstairs a few seconds later. 'Yumm, I'm starving!', the Doctor said with a laugh, before they all went downstairs to have dinner. Jackie had made bloody devine smelling turkey and rice. After all of them had helped themselves to some, Jackie started bombarding them with questions: 'So, Doctor, where have you been all this time? And who are you, girl?' She spoke in a sharp tone that made quite clear that she disapproved of Kate and would defend her daughter's relationship with the Doctor with her own blood, if necessary. Kate noticed that something about them made everyone assume that she and the Doctor were somehow an item. Hastily, she shook her head. 'No one, we've just met, to be honest. I helped him come here', she answered truthfully, which seemed to make Jackie calm down a little, and after dinner, Kate thought that she had done a solid job at making conversation with three nice-ish people of whom two had reasons above reasons to hate her. She almost couldn't blame them. Almost.

'Doctor, there's a spare bedroom at the end of the corridor! Kate, sweetheart, you can sleep in Rose's room, there's two beds', Jackie shouted after they had went upstairs after dinner. Rose almost broke into laughter at that. It seemed that her mom had forgotten that she had gone away with that man to travel across the universe in a time machine. But no, separate bedrooms when he was in their house. Whatever. To be honest, she was quite relieved that she had made peace with Kate; she couldn't have really hated her anyways, Kate was far too nice for that. All three of them were tired, and so they quickly said 'Goodnight' to each other before they went to bed. Happy but exhausted from the happenings of that day, Rose closed her eyes and almost immediately fell asleep.