ROSE TYLER SAXON
Chapter Twelve (One month later…) Rose opened her eyes and sat up. She glanced back at her sleeping husband who was snoring softly before she stood up. All last night, the Master had insisted on having sex with her and when she protested he smacked her until she gave in. She had several bruises on her body from where he assaulted her including one on her cheek. She had her mind back now, for some reason Harry no longer bothered to hypnotize her but she realized she was a prisoner now, just like the others in the ship. The Doctor, Jack and Martha's family. There had been no sign of Martha since she vanished but her husband had done everything in his power to find her. In the meantime, he kept Martha's family as servants, Jack was tied up in the bowels of the ship and the Doctor was reduced to sleeping in a tent and eating from a dog bowl. The Earth had been laid to waste and the Toclafane acted as the Master's enforcers, making sure everyone submitted to him. He stepped into the shower and stripped off her black silk nightgown and underpants. She turned on the water and tested it with her wrist. When it was the right temperature she stepped inside it. The hot water felt good but she turned it up until it was near scalding. She did that often because she felt like it rid herself of the stink of her husband's body as well as being punishment for her part in the destruction of Earth. Her body got used to the hot water and she used shampoo on her hair. As she lathered her hair, she heard the door open and she sighed when a hand reached around the plastic shower curtain and stroked her back. The Master's hand jerked when the hot water hit it and he turned the temperature down. "You'll burn yourself," he said through the shower curtain. "I want to burn myself. I want to die," Rose said as she turned and let the soap from the shampoo run down her back. "Why, darling?" "Because of what happened. I stood back and let it happen," Rose said, staring at the fiberglass floor of the shower while the soap ran down her back. "That's because I hypnotized you," the Master said. "You admit that?" Rose said, looking at his silhouette through the shower curtain. "No use in lying now. I've tried to keep you hypnotized but yours is an exceptionally strong mind for an ape," the Master said. "The drugs wore off quickly too. You built up an immunity to them so I gave up." "And now you just beat me into submission," Rose said bitterly. "Well, you keep resisting. The wedding vows did mention obeying, at least on your part," the Master said. "I hate you," Rose said as she stared at the floor. "Doesn't matter, sweetie, till death do us part and all that," the Master said nonchalantly. "And if you try to resist, you will die." Rose snorted. "That threat doesn't scare me anymore," she said. "Then you will suffer, along with the Doctor." Rose raised her head. That was the other thing she hated, his constant abuse of the Doctor, torturing and tormenting him when he could barely defend himself. Now that she was free of the hypnotic conditioning, she realized how evil Harry Saxon really was. She flinched when the Master put his hand through the shower curtain and stroked her back. "I hate abusing you," he said as he rubbed her back. "I want us to have a happy marriage as king and queen of the Earth. But in order to do that, you'll have to be the dutiful wife." Rose said nothing as she stared at the floor. The Master stopped stroking her back and she breathed a sigh of relief when he left the room. She turned the temperature back up and put the hot water on her back, directly where the Master had touched her. She spent forty five minutes in the shower before getting out. She dried off and put her nightgown and underpants back on. When she walked out of the room, her husband was gone and she breathed a sigh of relief. She put a black silk dressing gown on and tied it around her. Then she put on some matching black silk slippers and hurried out of the room. She hurried to the conference room, eager to see the Doctor. She entered the dimly lit room and went to the tent. She bent down when she reached it and looked inside. The Doctor was asleep, snoring softly as he lay on the straw the Master had put down for him. She crawled on her knees inside the tent until she was next to him. She reached out her hand to touch him and was shocked when his eyes snapped open. She drew her hand back while the Doctor gazed at her in silence. "Your eyes are clear this morning," he said softly. "Harry…the Master no longer bothers to hypnotize me. It doesn't last any longer." She could see him looking at the bruise on her face with pain in his eyes and her heart went out to him. "So now you're a prisoner just like the rest of us," he said. Rose lowered her eyes to the floor and nodded. "I don't care what he does to me now. I'm in Hell, have been in Hell since I married him. I just couldn't see it. And now I've taken you and everyone else down with me." "You didn't do this, not a bit of it," the Doctor said. "I stood back and let it happen." The Doctor put his hand on her arm. "The Master is a powerful hypnotist. He put you under his power so you couldn't resist. He did all this, not you. Please don't wish for death. You need to be strong so you can escape with us." "There isn't much of a future now," Rose said. "The Earth is destroyed. What's there to live for?" "There's always something to live for," the Doctor said gently. "And there is a way out of this if you trust me." "I do. I don't know why but I do trust you. But how can you make this all better?" Rose said. "I have a way, I promise. It'll take time though so you must trust me." "I had a dream last night. I saw you and me in bed together, in each other's arms. It felt right, that dream, like it was meant to happen." "Residual memory," the Doctor said. "The Master put those memories inside you. He took them out but he must have missed one and it came through as your dream last night." "Is it real?" Rose said. "It was, once. The Master changed your future. By this time you would have been traveling with me in my TARDIS but he stopped all that." "He ruined everything," Rose said softly as her eyes turned back to the straw. "He ruined everyone's lives, including ours. I have no future now because of him and neither do you." The Doctor chuckled softly and Rose looked at him. "Ah, Rose, as long as our hearts keep beating, there is a future," he said. Rose studied his face. Even though his face was ancient, his eyes were still brown and youthful and twinkled with life. Rose reached out her hand towards his face and hesitated just before touching his cheek. The Doctor took her hand and kissed the back of it gently before laying it against his cheek. "You care for me?" Rose said softly. "Very deeply." "Why?" "Because you cared for me when I felt as hopeless as you do now. You showed me love and I fell in love with you in return," he said as he held her hand to his cheek, pushed up the sleeve of her dressing gown and gently ran his fingers up and down her upper arm. "We became each other's world. That world we shared has been closed to you now because of the Master. He did this to cause me pain and it has, far more than the aging and beatings and humiliation. He took you before you met me and all you have left of our time together is one fleeting residual memory that he forget to take from your mind. Two years of happy times reduced to a single memory." "Are you like him?" Rose asked. "I am like him in that he and I are the same species. I'm not cruel like him and I would never harm you and make you suffer. These bruises you have disgust me. I would never do that to you." "What he did when he put the memories in my mind, can you do that as well?" "Yes." "Will you…show me more?" Rose said. "What about your husband? If he finds out you're here, he might punish you." "I don't care. He punishes me if I don't do every little thing he wants. I no longer care about him. Please show me our life together?" The Doctor patted the straw beside him and Rose lay down and turned to face him. The Doctor smoothed back her still damp air and put his fingertips against her temples. Rose closed her eyes and images flooded her mind. Images of her and the Doctor in his youth traveling together, having adventures and loving one another. Rose savored the images of the Doctor kissing and caressing her. The Doctor was tender and loving, not pushy and demanding like her husband was. This was us, the Doctor said inside her mind. This is your true future, Rose, not this hell you're in. Rose teared up but she kept her eyes closed. The Doctor showed her another version of him and showed her Jack so she'd understand his connection to him. Rose smiled through her tears as she watched her and Jack teasing each other while the Doctor watched from the console. Her heart ached as she wanted that future restored to her and her hatred of her husband increased. She felt the Doctor taking his fingers away and the images ceased. She kept her eyes closed and tried to hold on to the memories while the Doctor wiped the tear stains from her cheeks. "I want it back, all of it, my future," she murmured while she kept her eyes closed. "I will bring it back to you, I promise," the Doctor said softly. "But how? You're a prisoner here just like me." "My mind is free and so is yours now," the Doctor said, leaning his face in to hers as he laid his hand on her cheek. "I'm doing things now to free us, it's just not visible." "How long? Till we're free?" "It'll take awhile but I'm working on it, I swear." "It'll be too late." "What makes you say that?" Rose swallowed hard. "He won't let us live. He can't keep me under his control and he'll kill us and Jack and Martha's family so we won't be a threat to him. He'll kill us all like he did the president." "I know him, Rose, far deeper than you do and I know how to prevent him from killing us. He might brag about killing us but he won't do it, we're too valuable to him for the moment. And he's had numerous chances to kill me in the past but he never did. He could have killed me the night he aged me and he didn't. My mind's been free since that night and he hasn't killed me yet. He thinks we're helpless, both of us. That's why he's allowing you to have a free mind. I'm sure he thinks as long as he beats on you and tortures you from time to time, you'll be kept in line. I'm sure he knows you're in here but so far the guards haven't come to drag you away. He's arrogant and that'll be his undoing." He inched closer to her until she was next to his body. Rose closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh as he rubbed her back. She brought back the memories he had given her and were comforted by them. Even in his advanced age, she would take him over her husband any day. "Are you hungry?" Rose murmured as she lay next to him. "I could do with a cup of tea but other than that, no." "I'll fix you some tea then." "Later. Just lay here a bit." "Okay," Rose murmured, happy to be near him. After spending half the night having sex with the Master and being slapped around, Rose felt comforted and knowing she was safe in the Doctor's arms, she felt herself drifting off to sleep. Before she surrendered herself to sleep, she heard herself murmur I love you and the last thing she felt before falling asleep was the Doctor's lips on her forehead.
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