A HORRIBLE CHOICE
Chapter Three Rose slowly opened her eyes and groaned as she struggled to wake up. She was going back in the house to see about breakfast when someone grabbed her from behind and stuffed a rag over the lower half of her face, she managed to see a bright light envelop her before she lost consciousness. She lifted her head and noticed that the floor seemed to be made of Perspex. She slowly got to her knees and looked around. She was enclosed in a large Perspex cube. The cube was at the back of a concrete room that had nothing in it except two other cubes that were positioned on either side of a heavy wooden door. In one cube was a woman with blonde curly hair but the other cube… Rose inched forward, getting a look at the woman with ginger hair. "Donna?" Rose said, putting her hand up against the front of the cube while she looked at the unconscious woman. She called to the other woman but she didn't respond. Frustrated, Rose sat back with her back against the back of her prison and waited for Donna and the other woman to wake up. Meanwhile, on the TARDIS, Amy agreed to sit with John and wait for him to wake up while the Doctor and Rory tried to get a lock on Rose's location. They had put John in a small bed in the med bay and covered him with a sheet. Amy was sitting in a wooden chair beside him. She gazed down at the clone Doctor and smiled while she played with a bit of his tousled hair. "He is cute," Amy said. "Wonder what his other selves look like then?" She pulled her hand away when John started to come to. He opened his eyes and looked at Amy. "Damn," John said. "What? What's wrong?" Amy said. "Why do I have to be tormented by ginges? Your hair color is what I wish I had," he said. Amy chuckled at that. "I can tell you're the Doctor, you have his sense of humor," she said. "And you are…" "Amy Pond, I travel with the Doctor. My husband is Rory." "A married couple, that's a first for me," John said. "I'm assuming by you being here that I'm in the TARDIS?" "You are. You must have passed out when you were pulled in here, at least that's what our Doctor thinks happened." "I expect so. It's a rough and risky ride across the void," John said, slowly sitting up. "Do you want me to get the Doctor?" Amy asked him. "If you would. I'd appreciate it," John said. "I'm still trying to recover from going across the void but I'd like to speak with him…and see him as well, I'm curious to see what he looks like since he regenerated." "I'll get him," Amy said. John thanked her and watched her leave. He looked around the med bay and breathed in the familiar scent of the TARDIS. "Feels good to be back," he murmured while he looked around. "But Rose…oh my love, I hope you're alright. Hold on, we're coming to get you." He sensed someone coming to the door and he turned his head and saw the Doctor standing in the doorway. "Okay, I would say you're Rory, except I doubt Rory wears tweed and a bow tie, so you must be the man himself," John said. "Bow ties are cool," the Doctor said, coming into the room. "Wouldn't know, I wear casual clothes now," John said, tugging at his maroon t-shirt. "But you look like you've grown younger, is this a trend now, growing younger with each life?" "At my age, I need all the youth I can get in order to keep up with the monsters and villains," the Doctor said, sitting down in the chair. "How are you feeling?" "Better, I'm more worried about Rose though," John said. "Yes, I wanted to talk to you about that but first, know that I harbor no ill will. If you're here, we're going to have to work together so let's put all that nasty business behind us, yeah?" "Yeah," John said, nodding. "Rose has been helping me work past my anger." "Which is why I wanted her with you. I knew she'd help you." "What about you? Are you alright?" John said. "I have my days but I'm better than I was, regenerating helped get past some of the darkness I had in my life. I'm just sorry that you won't be able to do the same when the time comes for your body to die." "M'eh, Rose loves me and that's more than enough for me. I will trade multiple lives to grow old with her." "Good. Speaking of…back to what I came in here to tell you. I ran another scan in order to pinpoint Rose's location. I didn't edit out anyone because I had the general area but when I ran the scan there were three people in the same place with artron energy signatures." "What? Are you sure?" "Positive, I ran the scan three times and each time it picked up three people. I have a feeling Rose wasn't the only one who was abducted." "Then it might not have been a random abduction if the other two…" "I thought that since the person brought her over here to her original universe…" the Doctor said. "Do you know who else might be missing then?" "Not sure, it could be loads of people; you know how many have been in here over the centuries." "Yes, but…Rose…they knew enough about Rose to come and get her in our universe and bring her back here so…perhaps they're targeting recent companions?" John said. "Apart from Amy and Rory, who's been traveling with you lately?" "River." "River? You met her again?" The Doctor nodded. "Where is she? Is she in here too?" "No, she's in prison." "What? Why?" "Supposedly for murder but she won't say who she killed if she killed anyone. Spoilers, you know." John rolled his eyes. "What about her then? Could she be a target?" John said. "Dunno but I can check. We can go to her cell block and make sure she's there." "What about Donna? Is Donna here?" The Doctor winced and told his clone what happened to her. John groaned and shook his head sadly. "I thought that might happen but I hoped it wouldn't. But…even with her memories erased…" "We can check her as well; I'll land far enough away that if she's at home, she won't hear me. She won't know who I am now anyway, so I don't think there's a danger of her memories being triggered." "Martha? Do you have Martha's mobile? We could ring her and make sure she's alright." The Doctor nodded. He stood up and fished the mobile out of his pocket. "You ring her," he said, handing it to John. "You have the familiar sounding voice and I'd rather she hear that first and then get the news that I regenerated." John nodded, took the phone and found Martha's number. He hit the talk button and waited while it rang. He smiled when he heard Martha's voice when she answered the phone. "Hey, Martha, guess who?" "DOCTOR!" Martha yelled. The Doctor snickered when John winced at her loud voice and jerked the mobile away from his ear for a second before he put it back to his ear. "Well, yes and no, this is the Doctor's clone," he said. "Oh, um…hi, didn't expect you to ring me," Martha said. "But it's good to hear from you.' "Well, the reason I'm talking to you is because the Doctor regenerated and he has a different voice." "Is he nearby?" Martha said. "I wanted to know something." "Yes, he's right here, do you want to talk to him?" "Yeah, I mean…I'm not trying to get rid of you," Martha said quickly. John chuckled and told her it was alright, that he understood. Martha told him it was good to hear his voice again and John thanked her before handing the phone to the Doctor. "This is the original Doctor." "Wow, you have a nice voice," Martha said. The Doctor thanked her and told her the reason for calling her. "Oh God, poor Rose," Martha said when he finished. "Um…no, nothing's happened here. Mickey and I are alright. He's gone down to the shops for some trousers and shirts but as far as I know, he's alright. Do you have any clue who these other two people might be? Is one of them Donna?" "Dunno, I'm going to go to Chiswick and check though." "Do you mind if I came with you? I want to help and I want to see what you look like now, sorta curious." "Yes, I'll come get you. At your mum's house?" "Yes, I'm visiting with her and she's fine and so is dad and Tish. It isn't any of us. What about Jack though? Have you tried him?" "No, but I'm not sure where he's at right now. Before I regenerated I found him in a pub on Luna 12. I could check and see if he's back at Torchwood though." "Speaking of that…that day when you saved us from the Sontaran, we called to you and you never answered us. We're you alright? You seemed sad." "That was just before I regenerated, I visited everyone I knew and looked in on them in order to say goodbye or at least say a silent goodbye. I wasn't alright since I was dying but I didn't want you or Mickey to worry about me or try to stop me so that's why I didn't answer you when you called to me." "Oh, we wondered about that. You're right, we would have tried to help you and I s'pose you didn't want that. I'm glad you're still with us." "Yeah, me too. Listen, let me give the phone back to John here and you can chat with him for a moment. I'm going to come get you and then we'll check on Donna." "Okay, see you in a few minutes." The Doctor gave the mobile to John and hurried out of the room while John chatted with her. He spoke with her until they landed outside her mother's house and he ended the call. By the time he made it to the console room, Martha was inside it. John froze and looked around with a slack jaw when he saw the new interior. "Wow, you redecorated," John said. "I'll say," Martha said. "It looks great! More like a proper spaceship this time." "Oi!" the Doctor said while Martha chuckled. The Doctor introduced Amy and Rory to Martha and Rory introduced himself to John. Once that was finished, the Doctor shut the doors and set a course for Chiswick.
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