PAST LIFE, PAST LOVE

Chapter One

It was a rainy day in London in the year 2006 and the Doctor and Rose were there to visit Jackie. After promising to stay for dinner, they decided to go to the shops to kill some time. They found a bookshop and went inside. While the rain continued to fall, the Doctor quietly perused the books on the shelves. He wasn't really there to purchase anything. Most human books seemed infantile or out of date to him. It was just something to do while Rose picked out a couple of books to take back to the TARDIS. He stopped at a collector's edition copy of the DaVinci Code and picked it up. He stood and thumbed through it, staring at the photos of the artworks and locations mentioned in the book.

"Do you believe that?"

The Doctor looked up and saw a young lady standing beside him. The lady had long black hair that cascaded down to the small of her back. She had light makeup on and a nose ring. She pointed to the book when the Doctor gave her a questioning look.

"Have you read this?" she asked him.

"No, but I know what it's about," the Doctor said.

"Do you believe that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene then?"

"Yes. They had several kids as well, all of them lovely by the way. Very well behaved."

The woman gave him an odd look.

"Yeah, I'm sure Jesus's kids were all saints," the woman muttered. "Excuse me."

The Doctor shrugged when she moved away from him and turned his attention back to the artwork.

"Hey!"

The Doctor looked up when Rose came up to him. She showed him a book.

DISCOVER YOUR PAST LIVES: LEARN WHO YOU WERE THROUGH HYPNOSIS.

The Doctor snorted at that and shook his head.

"You don't believe in past lives?" Rose asked.

"I believe in past lives in the sense that I've had nine past lives before this one. But I don't believe you can be put under hypnosis and suddenly you're remembering your life as Napoleon."

"I want to get this. I do believe in it and I want to try to find out my past lives," Rose said.

The Doctor studied her for a moment.

"Didn't think you believed that sort of stuff but since you do, who do you think you were in another life?" he asked as he put his book back on the shelf.

"Dunno, that's why I want to find out. Will you help me?" Rose said.

"Help you in what way?"

"Well, there are instructions on how to hypnotize someone and send them back into their past lives. Will you do the hypnotizing?"

"What happens if you find out you were a milkmaid in the medieval England? Will we take the TARDIS back and try to find you?" the Doctor teased.

"Mm, perhaps. Will you help me though?"

"Oh alright, I'm a bit curious anyway," the Doctor said. "I wanna know what past lives you had. I'm betting you were Joan of Arc or Cleopatra or some nutter that collected cow poo in a wooden cart and sold it to the locals."

Rose laughed at that and the Doctor followed behind her while she walked up to the counter to pay for the book.

XOXOXOXOXO

"Wow, Jackie can actually make a very good roast. I'm quite full now," the Doctor said as he patted his stomach.

He and Rose were sitting in the living room while Jackie cleaned the dishes. While he lounged in a chair, Rose sat on the sofa. She whistled to him and showed him the book when he looked her way.

"Now?" he groaned.

"Yeah, come on, it'll be fun," Rose said.

The Doctor held out his hand and Rose put the book into it. She watched in astonishment while the Doctor did a super-speed read of the book, flipping through the pages rapidly while he read the contents.

"Well, I read the instructions on how to do this whole past life regression thing," he said. "Seems valid although I still don't believe you can access past lives that way. But what the hell? Is your mum going to be witness to this then?" he said, hooking his thumb back at the kitchen.

"Um…dunno, she might think it's rubbish."

"I think it's rubbish and you still want me to do it."

"Yeah, but you won't laugh or criticize me. Better not. Just let her do the washing up while we try this."

"Okay," the Doctor said. "Lay flat on the sofa then and relax."

Rose lay flat on her back and put her head on one of the small sofa pillows.

"Now close your eyes and imagine you're at the top of a staircase," the Doctor said. "As you go down the steps, count them and feel yourself relaxing more and more and going deeper into a hypnotic state."

Rose did that and her breathing deepened while she imagined going down the staircase in her mind. While the Doctor continued the instructions, Jackie came out of the kitchen. She stopped by the sofa and gave the Doctor a quizzical look. The Doctor held up the book, pointing to it and to Rose. Jackie rolled her eyes at that. She said nothing as she went and sat down in another chair near the sofa. The Doctor continued with the verbal instructions, quoting word for word what he read in the book while Rose went into a deep state of hypnosis. Jackie leaned up, interested in what was going on. When the Doctor finished hypnotizing her, he did what the book recommended and took her backwards in her current life, asking her to remember events when she was younger. Rose told him about a birthday party when she was six and now both he and Jackie listened in a fascinated silence while she described receiving gifts and eating cake with her friends.

"Never did believe in this past life stuff but I remember that party," Jackie said to the Doctor when Rose finished speaking.

"Sounds like she had fun," the Doctor said.

Jackie nodded and the Doctor slowly took her backwards in her life until she was inside the womb. This was the part he had trouble believing but he listened while Rose described being in a dark, warm place. Then he told her to go beyond her life and describe the first thing she saw after going backwards past her current life. There was a pause and then Rose described being stabbed in the chest. The Doctor glanced at Jackie and noticed that she looked distressed at that.

"She's saying she was stabbed to death in her past life?" Jackie said.

"Seems so," the Doctor said.

He asked Rose to describe herself and Jackie raised her eyebrow when she said she was a Japanese soldier who died during World War Two.

"I'm finding this hard to believe, Doctor," Jackie said.

"So am I but she asked me to help her do this so I'm helping her," the Doctor said. "I read through this book very quickly and doing what the book suggested to take her back to her past lives. Apparently, I succeeded."

"Or she's just saying that first thing that pops into her head," Jackie said.

The Doctor asked Rose to go past that life and try to remember other lives. Rose was silent for a moment before she finally spoke. But to the Doctor's surprise, she wasn't speaking English. Jackie was stunned when her daughter started speaking the foreign language fluently. She looked at the Doctor when he jumped out of his chair.

"What's wrong?"

"No, no, no, that can't be right. How could she know this?"

"Know what? Doctor, what language is that?" Jackie said, pointing to her daughter.

The Doctor swallowed hard and said in a shaky voice…

"Gallifreyan."

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