The Human Doctor

Part 1

It's been a few months since that awful yet wonderful day at Bad Wolf Bay. The day one Doctor said goodbye forever and another said hello. Things haven't really changed much, well, actually they’ve changed a lot. No more flying around in the TARDIS, no more travelling the stars and planets, and no more timelords. Right now I'm living with mum and dad and Tony in our house. It still feels strange that I get to say things like that. I’ve never really had a dad before, I’ve never lived in a house, and I’ve never had a brother. The strangest thing though is the Doctor. He’s living with us too. I love him, or at least I loved him. He doesn’t seem the same. He’s a real doctor now though. He didn’t go to medical school or anything, he just walked into St. John’s one day and told them he was a doctor (he may have had help from some psychic paper) and now he’s back to saving people’s lives. Me, I’m just working in a shop again, same old Rose.

I’m sitting outside on the patio right now, couldn’t sleep. Just looking up at the stars. I can’t believe that I used to travel among those same stars I’m stuck looking at from afar just like everyone else does. Nothing Special. I can feel a tear forming in my eye as I hear a voice.

“Rose?” said that familiar voice as he came outside, sat next to me and put his arm around my shoulder.

“I’m-I’m fine,” I said wiping away the tear.

“No, you’re not. What’s wrong?  Where’s my Rose?”

“Where’s my Doctor?” I asked him.

“We’ve been through this, I’m right here, the same Doctor. The same Doctor who loves you.”

“You’re not him.” I protested.

“Yes I am. I told you same memories, same feelings, same everything”

“Minus a TARDIS and a heart and a sonic screwdriver and adventure” I started crying.

“You’re right. I don’t have those things anymore, but I do still have adventure. This life-this is one great big adventure that I’ve never been able to have. Being a human, having a job… a family. I’ve never done anything as incredible as that. And, you’re right we won’t ever be the same as we were in the TARDIS, but we can still travel-”

“No, we can’t. Flying on an airplane to go stay in a hotel in some city? It’s not the same.”

“No it’s not, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an adventure. It’s not like anything we have ever done before. Just picture it, you and me on a holiday to, oh, I don’t know…Australia the Outback or anywhere! We have got anywhere on this earth to go!”

“That’s just it!” I said removing his hand and feeling the tears again, “On Earth. There is no more travelling to other planets, other worlds. We are stuck right here. I want to be back with the timelord you- travelling the stars in the TARDIS. I want that to be my life again”

“Rose, let me tell you something. When I travelled in the TARDIS I had numerous companions. All of them thought that they wanted to travel with me forever. But sooner or later they couldn’t. We’d get separated somehow and I know that would have happened to us too. No matter how much you didn’t want to leave, or I didn’t want you to go, it would have happened. I could be there in a new different or younger body watching you die of old age or because of something I did. I would never want that to happen. So the way I see it, you actually got the better deal. You get me for my entire life. I may only have one heart, but that means when I die, I die. It means no more regeneration. I can be yours forever. One heart belonging entirely to you.”

“What about all those other girls you travelled with, didn’t your heart belong to them too?”

“I must admit I did love them” I started to pull away from him, “As friends, really good friends, but nothing more. I only ever loved you and you were the only one who ever truly loved me.”

“You’re telling me that all those girls, they never loved you?”

“They loved me, but they only loved me because I was a timelord and because I showed them amazing things and took them on amazing adventures and saved the world day after day. You were the only one I’ve met in my whole life who loved me for me and nothing else. I love you Rose Tyler.” He slipped his arm away from me and knelt down in front of me to look into my eyes that were glistening with tears of sadness, confusion, and now happiness. He held my hands lovingly in his own and said, “I love you and I want to spend the rest of my human life with you” he reached behind his back and pulled out a little blue velvet box and opened it as he said, “Rose Tyler will you allow me to have the best adventure of my life by becoming my wife?”

“Yes!” I managed to say through my tears and my huge smile, “Yes!” he took the ring out of the tiny blue box and placed it on my finger. I stared at the ring a moment. It was a silver band with tiny white crystals (that we found together on one of our “dates” on New Earth) surrounding a beautiful deep blue sapphire. “The bluest blue ever.” He whispered into my ear. Then he kissed me. There he was, my doctor, all mine and I realized right then that I never stopped loving him and I never would.

Two months later…

                I had a great day today. Mum and I went out to look at dresses and things for the wedding. We got home and dad was playing with Tony outside in the garden and mum went to go take a nap. I walked outside and asked, “Dad, have you seen the Doctor?”

“No, hun. I haven’t. He’s been inside all day”

                I went back inside and up the stairs to our room. I opened the door and the lights were off and all the shades drawn. The first thing I saw was that the breakfast I left him was untouched and still sitting on the table. Then I saw him slouched in a chair. As I turned on the light I could see the small glimmer of a tear on his cheek. I closed the door and went over to him. “What’s the matter?” I asked. I waited a minute for a reply. He looked like he was trying to figure out the best way to tell me some bad news. Obviously I assumed the worst, and he could tell and that’s why he told me.

                “Rose, I’m not quite sure how to tell you this, but the other Doctor and myself, I think we have some sort of connection. I have been feeling this way for a while now. Sometimes I just feel certain things or have certain emotions that aren’t from this life. It’s like I can feel things that the other Doctor feels.”

“Ok” I respond, “But what are you so sad about now? Has something happened?”

He paused before he looked up at me, “I think… I think I died, Rose.”

“Come on, what makes you think that? The Doctor can’t die, he’ll just regenerate. How can you know for sure?" 

“I can’t but I just have this feeling. I’ve been having dreams lately and some of them- they just feel so real. I can feel everything that’s happening like it’s happening to me. Last night I had a terrible dream, I can’t remember what it was about, I only remember that it was terrible and-“

 “And what?” I asked eagerly

 “And all I could hear was a soft drumming sound. Then four distinct, clear, loud knocks. That’s when I felt it. I’m not sure what I felt, but I felt it. Now I keep remembering this face in my head and she keeps saying, ‘He will knock four times’ and then I will die. I think the Doctor’s dead, Rose”

 “He can’t be dead. The Doctor doesn’t die, de doesn’t. He has to have regenerated.”

 “I’m sure he’s regenerated by now. It’s just- regenerating saves you but you’re not the same person. When you die you die and when you regenerate a new person-who’s still the same person-takes your place. It’s complicated, but it feels the same as dying.” He looked up at me again, “The doctor died. The doctor we knew is dead, and now there’s a new doctor in his place.” I began to cry with him. Our Doctor is dead. Now if we would ever see him again, just by chance, we wouldn’t know it. My Doctor is all I’ve got left. After a while of just lying in each other’s arms he said, “Rose, I want to tell you something, something I’ve never told anyone else”

 “What’s that?”

“My name”

To Be Continued…