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Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five, Chapter Six
Seven: The Fall
The Doctor gripped Rose’s hand tightly, easing himself in front of her, positioning himself carefully between her and their captor.
‘Host,’ he greeted politely – his eyes, however, were chill.
‘Doctor,’ their host inclined his head.
Rose studied him, noticing that he was no longer the laughing, jovial, inconsequential creature that had met them; instead, his face was stern and he seemed somehow taller, less harmless but nonetheless, not harmful. Rose eased out from behind her husband, ignoring his impatient twitch and attempt to tug her back into line. She looked their host full in the face and contemplated him. He endured her gaze with a twitch of his lips, his own eyes meeting her appraising ones, and it seemed, as Rose looked into his eyes, that a veil lifted and she saw something beyond the man before her, something old – perhaps even older than the Doctor. For a long instant, the old man and the child contemplated one another, and then he blinked and the moment was lost. In the wake of the moment, however, Rose stepped entirely clear of the Doctor’s protection, moving to stand at his side, her body fully exposed should the host choose to seek to harm her.
Noting her action, the host smiled, before returning his gaze to the Doctor.
‘I had hoped you would not realise your captivity so quickly, Doctor.’
‘You really thought you could fool me?’ the Doctor’s chin lifted, whispers of arrogance in his tone.
Their host laughed, throwing his head back and baring his mirth to the heavens. ‘So very proud!’ he dropped his head and for a second he was the twinkling, exuberant man who had received them when they first arrived, then his face grew sober and that man was gone again. ‘I hoped, Doctor. I merely hoped.’
The Doctor glared, neither his apprehension nor his readiness to act lessening in the face of the host’s apparent munificence. ‘To what end?’
‘So suspicious!’ he chided.
The Doctor stiffened, his back seeming to lengthen threateningly. There were hints of fury in his response. ‘You’ve trapped us here. Rose was hurt!’
The host’s gaze relinquished the Doctor and fell on Rose and he grimaced regretfully. ‘That was a mistake. I had not expected you to attempt to escape so soon, nor to attack the barrier so directly.’
‘A mistake? She might have died!’
The host shook his head and his tone was chiding, ‘I would not have allowed that, Doctor. I regret that I failed to anticipate your impetuosity.’ He smiled, ‘Such life, such curiosity! I had forgotten… but then I am old and, it seems, my recollections of the enthusiasm of youth are flawed.’
Rose could see the Doctor was preparing to inform their captor that he most definitely was not a youth, but she forestalled him, squeezing his hand warningly. She had a feeling that there was more to this man than the Doctor seemed to imagine – she did not think he was hostile, in fact, he struck her as kind, a bit like her granddad Prentice. Sad and lonely and wise and maybe stern, but not unkind.
The host watched Rose’s action with interest. ‘Despite your suspicion, Doctor, I do not mean you any harm. I do not mean harm to either of you. I had merely thought to protect you.’ He looked deep into the eyes of the Doctor, letting a little of his soul free. ‘I sought to let you rest. After over nine hundred years, are you not ready for a rest, Doctor? Do you not yearn for a place where you feel safe, where you might be granted time with your wife, without the constant terror of her loss? The gnawing sense of her death, just around the corner, the knowledge that a storm…’
‘Stop it!’ The Doctor lurched forward, his hand up and out and capturing their host at his neck, propelling him backwards and holding him hard against the wall of the house. ‘Don’t you dare!’
The host stared down at the Doctor impassively, seemingly entirely unperturbed by the Doctor’s rage or his hand tight about his throat. Very gently, he lifted his hand and caught the Doctor’s at the wrist, pulling it clear of his neck as if moving a feather – only the Doctor’s taut expression, the twitch at his jaw, exposed the force employed.
‘Be calm, Doctor, I mean you no harm.’
The Doctor gazed at his wrist as if unable to comprehend what had just happened.
‘Who are you? What are you?’ he whispered.
The host smiled gently. ‘Who I am is not important, but I see you need absolutes, so I suppose you could say that I am a traveller, like you, but my path wanders different paths, paths that wind through the wastes of eternity.’
The Doctor’s face slackened with shock. ‘You’re…’ he swallowed, trying to find voice enough to speak. ‘You’re an Eternal?’
The host remained impassive.
‘You’re an Eternal,’ he restated, no longer questioning. ‘But that’s impossible. They left – after the,’ his voice dropped, ‘after the Time War, they left.’
Rose moved closer to the Doctor, drawn by the tightly marshalled pain redolent in his taut voice. The host, too, moved, his hand moving to rest against the Doctor’s forearm, as if to offer comfort. The Doctor gazed at the hand on his arm as if it were impossible. ‘They left,’ he insisted.
The host smiled. ‘How do you know that, Doctor?’ He dropped his hand and turned to wander across the terrace, dropping his plump form into one of the chairs there. Like metal to the irresistible force of a magnet, the Doctor followed, Rose in his wake. As he reached the host, he folded his legs beneath him, dropping to sit at the man’s feet, like a nursery school child at story time.
‘Your people are mere myth now, Doctor, the stuff of fable, and yet here you are, real and solid and not fairy tale.’
‘I don’t… you’re real?’
The host laughed. ‘Of that you may be certain!’
‘But why?’
The host chose to ignore what Rose suspected the Doctor was asking, selecting instead to return to the reason they were there. ‘I was trying to help you. Nothing more, nothing less.’
He smiled down at them and Rose was reminded powerfully of the visits she had made, as a small child, to see Santa at Henricks.
‘There is a storm coming and you have faced so much, weathered so many, I hoped to preserve you.’ The host sighed, his hand reaching out to ruffle the Doctor’s hair, and Rose suppressed a smile.
‘It was a foolish whim. You, Doctor, are like the eagle, not the dove, and I cannot cage you. I should not have tried.’ He pushed himself up and out of the chair, turning to Rose as the Doctor scrambled to his feet. ‘It has been an honour, Bad Wolf. You are stronger still than I imagined. Remember that.’
With a gentle smile, he faced the Doctor once more, ‘Be free, little bird – I pray you do not lament the cage once you have sampled freedom.’ And, with no more warning than a sunbeam gives the soil, he vanished.
Chapter Eight
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And an Eternal! I've heard a lot about them on the older episodes but never actually seen one...wow! :D
As usual you've made me almost speechless! Congratulations *hands you a bag of chips* :D
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Poor Doctor, finally finding someone he could be a youth in comparison to, and his impetuosity spoils it all. A timely reminder that he is not always right ;-)
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Now that’s what I call a surprise – I wasn’t expecting anything like it! Good to see that not everyone is out to hurt the Doctor, even if it sometimes seems that way.
(Wouldn’t have hurt to have been upfront with him about it, though. Stubborn eejit that he is, and all.)
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As he admitted- he'd forgotten just how willful youths can be - especially when that youth is the Doctor. ;-)
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Great chapter, i'm really really worried about the next story though.... I keep hoping that you keep bringing that song/story the Doctor sings to Rose in these fics (about death leaving two lovers alone) up for a reason.
Going to be sad when this story ends...
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This line...he folded his legs beneath him, dropping to sit at the man’s feet, like a nursery school child at story time. just presents such a beautiful image, you just want someone (other than Rose) to look after the Doctor, just like a dad/a mentor/a friend. *sigh*
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I hope that the Doctor will at least allow himself a little time to rest, relax, and enjoy some downtime with Rose. He knows that something bad is coming, so I hope he's smart enough to grab this bit of peace before it all comes crashing down.
I love how the Host talks - so lyrical and poetic. Beautiful.
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:-)
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I have to say I did not see this coming, I'm loving it all the more though.
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*rocks back and forth in the corner repeating 'and they lived happily ever after with no parallel universe'*
Gads, that is a mouthful. Brilliant addition.
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Secondly, I saw a book at Chapters the other day called 'Honey Trap' after reading the back I decided, without a doubt, that your story is much better. :)
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Hugs
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Eternals are part of Dr Who history - not all of them were good by any means. If you know Who canon, it adds an extra dimension, but for the purposes of this story, all you really need to know is he is ancient, so ancient the Doctor is a child to him, and he meant well :-)
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