Was a Dame even 'fore it was a title...

Every once and a while it makes her laugh. She'd sat there on that bench and what was the one thing she'd focused on? His hair.

Really it was great... is great, really great.

It was the kind of hair that no matter what era they'd been in no one seemed to notice that he used a bit too much product... well not that everywhere they went even knew that. Still, it wasn't exactly a style that crossed dimensional style divides. Before... maybe before it'd been easier. But then he got that hair, and she couldn't help but want to thread her fingers into it. She'd hug him, probably too many times, but her hands always found their way to the nape of his neck. Her fingers would push up into it just a bit, the softer shorter hairs against the back of his head always felt good between her fingers.

Maybe it's laughable for a reason. All the things to make a mark on someone, the worlds he'd saved the adventures they'd been on... the way his eyes just let you know he understood exactly what you felt... those soulful deep brown eyes that looked into you not just at you, and she blabbered on about his hair.

Not that there wasn't any truth to it, it's really great hair.

Still she's back at the warehouse and the laughter just bubbles up from deep inside of her.

"Problem Mum?"

Her hand tucks her hair back behind her ear glancing to Captain Magambo, who's studying her a bit close. "No... no problem at all, just thinking back is all." Rose tries to shake it off, to think of something else but what sort of a woman who's trying to save the whole of creation opts to take a moment to reflect on a man she's not seen in years... in what feels like much longer... and pauses for his hair?

"I can't believe you said-"

"Well don't repeat it!"

"I wasn't goin' to but honestly. Really. What'd you think would happen?"

"Well..." It dragged out of his mouth like the word was meant to last a minute. A minute at the very least. There was no way he thought it would've resulted in anything different than the situation they were in right now.

Her eyebrows raised in doubt, and her glare met his with a bit of a wide eyed stare of disbelief, "Well what?"

"What?"

Shaking her head she shut her eyes and took in a breath. It was supposed to calm her. It would've calmed her if she hadn't nearly choked on the thick smell that hit her nostrils with that very intake of air.

"God... it's just horrid. It's like the inside of Mickey's old sneakers after sloshing through that swamp on Chevyylle," her nose wrinkled as she tried to not taste what she was smelling, but as the Doctor had pointed out on more than one occasion it was all connected up there, and that meant she was feeling that taste at the back of her throat. Her tongue scraped against the roof of her mouth and her expression made the Doctor nearly laugh.

"Don't laugh. This is your fault. You and that mouth a'yours." Her mouth drew into a tight line as she narrowed her gaze at him.

"Oh... I don't know. Mean this isn't that bad. Well except the smell. Well the smell and that ticking. You do hear the ticking right? Cause otherwise I'd be wondering if it was in my head. Side effect of the smell."

"Yeah. I hear the ticking. I smell the smell and I heard you say it. So really why I'm in here? Still doesn't make sense."

"Guilt by association Rose! You're with me, and look at that they don't really mind that you didn't say it. You didn't stop me from saying it, and well then you're in trouble too. Rapscallion that you are Rose Tyler."

"Rapscallion? You made that up."

He shook his head and grinned at her. Of course the gate lifted and the guards came in. Rose shook her head again in disappointment at the Doctor. Really it was his fault they were in this mess. Always his fault. Well maybe that one time... two times, maybe three tops it was her fault.

"We did not realize... you are free to go."

"What?" Rose exclaimed as she looked at the Doctor. "How'd we go from arrested on sight, or rather on WORD, to free to go?"

"He speaks the native tongue. Words that are paramount to our survival are regarded with the highest respect... and dishonor as well. He spoke of Rapscallion. Highest Priestess of our Lands. She allows her name to be spoken simply to beg the forgive those that have sinned upon us. No one knows her name from public knowledge. Only those that have visited with her are granted that right."

"Serious?"

"I do not understand what you are asking, but you are free to go."

Shaking her head she glanced to the Doctor who was beaming, "See? What'd I tell you. Easy as anything, and I didn't even have to break out the big words!"

Things like this happen.

Things like this occur a hundred times a minute... a thousand times an hour... all across worlds and planets and realms that only need a letter and a name to warn you off.

Things like this go on and no one notices, or maybe no one cares.

Turn a blind eye.

Look away when no one is watching.

Leave someone behind.

It happens though, every breath of every life, of every beat of a still beating heart... it happens.

Someone notices though. She's sure someone notices... someone knows too. A thousand points of light and all of them merge into a slipstream of nearly nothing... but it's something to someone... at some point.

So it happens.

Again and again.

Again and again.

Over and over to a thousand different worlds, a million different ways, over an infinite amount of seconds.

It happened again.

Just today.

Today for them.

A lifetime away for her.

So she slips in unknown, because no one is looking.

No one notices.

She's just another girl.

Just an ordinary girl.

And she's come to look at a city that just watched a kilo of their sadness walk away. A kilo of something that at some point in time made them feel whole... made them feel less empty and hollow. A kilo that sure once lost makes them wonder how vain they were to care about one kilo like that.

Still they're all watching.

Nothing to see.

Move along now.

Nothing to see... because it's over now.

But it happened.

Someone came.

Someone stopped it from taking them all.

Someone noticed.

Just no one noticed her.

Just a girl.

Just another blonde girl in the crowd watching what happens in the aftermath of something quite like this.

No one notices that she's different.

Changed.

No one notices that she's gone.

But she was never really there anyway.

- It's almost funny the way one moment he's there... seated in a chair smug smile on his face talking about whatever it is he was talking about and then the next gone. It's not even that she figured he'd just leave them, but he did seem to be a bit of flash and smile, and even now she knows watching the Doctor standing on crates trying to vibrate concrete with a frequency that she doesn't need 'scans for alien technology' to be impressed. Her hands skim against the bars of the wheels to the chair she's in, turning them slightly, just to rock herself forward and then backward. Watching him... try to avoid talking about Jack. If she didn't know better she'd almost think he was jealous. Her own smile a bit coy trying to allude to something with him that maybe he'd never even considered, but still trails at the edge of her thoughts from time to time, "The world doesn't end if the Doctor dances."

- The odds are stacked in an insane way against them and she's still trying to make sure she can help. Jack is off taking down as many Daleks as he can, the crackle of static comes before the cries of him taking out a few more before relaying to Lynda (with a Y) that he's holding them back as best he can. The Doctor is trying to figure things out faster, faster than his normal extremely fast methods and she knows it doesn't feel fast enough. When he tells her to get into the TARDIS she does, because she trusts him. She wants to help, wants to make sure that this is just another adventure for them... but when the doors close... and the message plays and she's fighting with every emotion she has in her, "I won't let you."

- The sound of chain link going from slack to taut puts a heavy metal clink of sound into her ears. She wants it to be more solid, something she can feel. Something she can trust in... something as strong and as sure as his hand each time it takes hers into it. All she has to do is tell the TARDIS to take her back. That she belongs with him. Months of travel, the TARDIS should know... it should feel that she belongs just as much as he does. The chain is pulling so hard against her that she knows this has to work, that the lurch of the truck should be enough to let her in... to open her up... and when it finally gives. When the chain goes slack and the doors fly shut...

- It's as bright as the burning of the Earth and even though she wants to look away. She wants to shield her eyes from the brilliant light, but she can't even turn her gaze. It's pulled her in and it feels safe. The breath she takes in is sudden and the light floods into her through her mouth, her nose and into the very heart of her. The connection is there. Strong as the chain that pulled her chasis open exposing her heart. Steady as the hand of the Doctor that has guided them both. They are one, and she knows... she knows just what that means.

- "I bring life."

- Waking up from the haze she's wondered just how they managed to pull it all off again. It's not every day that these things happen... not to her at least. Something is wrong though and it starts to furrow her brow watching him. Whatever is happening all she knows is that it can't be fair. That you can't save an entire world, travel back to one person just to watch them fade... it can't happen like that. Still he's talking about leaving and seeing her again, and all she can think to say is the words she can't figure out into anything she wants to say. All she can do is try to fight it once more, "Don't say that!"

- She watches cowering from an edge of the walls of the TARDIS. Trying not to seem afraid of what's going on. To trust him, because she ... because she trusts him. But then he's not him anymore, and the voice and the look don't match the man she'd been traveling with all that time. It's not what she wanted... not what she needed... "Can you change back?"

- It's wrong. Everything is wrong. Trying to hide from the Christmas tree, trying to make her mum safe and Mickey is trying to help too, but it's not supposed to be like this. He's supposed to be there for her. He's not supposed to leave her behind to fight this fight alone. She wants to be angry at him. To ball her hands into fists and punch him because she's so angry at him for saying he'd be there and then leaving. But she bottles it up along with the hurt and the loneliness and pulls in a breath saying the truest words she can think of, "Help me, Doctor!"

- It's not the same as it was. It's new. New adventures. New man. New times to go toward, and maybe it's not such a bad thing. He still remembers her... still knows who she is and how to make her smile. He's there... somewhere in there and maybe she can be okay with this 'new new self' of his. That it's brand new to him with those eyes that still sparkle when he smiles, that still shine when he knows he's about to solve it all with a swooping in gesture. It's still him... "So, where we gonna go first?"

- He's taken her so many places, and it'll take her so much longer for her to even be able to tell him how she feels for him... but there isn't that time left. All she has is now. Now and right here when he's not even there with her. She watched him fade into a new man and never got the chance to tell him... and she doesn't want the chance to fade again on her. He's not even there... not really, and even though she's struggling to memorize him just as he stands before her. To let that image of him be pressed into her memory just like fallen leaves are pressed into a book. As her tears fill her eyes she's watching that image of him blur a bit and she can't help it because she can't not say the words, "I love you."

"No... what's it do?"

"It doesn't *do* anything Rose, you drink it and then... oh... well yes I could see why you'd phrase it like that, but really the effects of it aren't too bad. Well... too bad being of course based on the sliding scale of the Tourmalynx War of the... oh remember that? That was good."

"Yeah, real good 'til you up and asked him if he was going to be using all of that or not, and he looked at you like you were gonna-"

"I know! But I wouldn't have... really... okay maybe, but just for a minute."

"Doctor? What's the effect?"

"Right! Effect. Says... well this says nothing. It's got a little picture of a what is that? a Skull? Oh that can't be good."

"A what? It can't be a skull. Who would make a potion that was this pretty pink color and make it label with a skull. Lemme have a look."

Rose took the bottle out of the Doctor's hands and turned it around for a bit. He was already wandering about the place, scanning the makeshift lab, the whole thing really was just a bit too far fetched for her. Wandering about was one thing, pushing buttons and making little comments sure, but he pulled that lever and then it was a roller coaster ride of sorts. Zipping around through something that reminded her a bit of a movie, but she couldn't place it in her head. Then they landed and ended up in this lab.

The lab where the Doctor had been milling about in until he found the cabinet. Which of course he opened, and of course started to flip through all the bottles. There were rows of them all with tiny labels on them, and clearly she wasn't just going to try any of them. So she was looking and asking mostly. He was the Doctor he should know these things.

Of course he didn't, and he was licking something... oh God... that's just horrible. Apparently tasted that way too from the grimace on his face. Rose's nails were picking absently at the label when she heard it tear a bit.

"Oh," she breathed out softly hoping that she hadn't done anything wrong but then she glanced down to the bottle, "Oh! Look it's not a skull! It's a..."

"Llama."

"Why'd anyone have a llama potion? Who wants to be a llama? Who wants to turn someone into a Llama? Oh! It's like..."

Rose turned around slowly and shook her head, "You know I thought I'd seen a lot of weird things, but Doctor? This is a Disney movie yeah? I mean... this is Yzma's lab! She made that King into a Llama! That's what... no. That can't be this! That's was a cartoon and this I swear isn't a cartoon."

"Yzma... Yzma... OH! Eartha Kitt, turned into a... Cat Yes! Very clever. But no. This isn't the cartoon, perhaps some odd coincidence, or you could consider that maybe those Disney folks have an Orb of Zaxxion. Seeing other worlds? Could explain the talking mice."

"Yeah... whatever. Look I'm not turnin' into a llama, we just need to get out of here."

"About that? You remember... in the movie I mean... how they exactly did that?"

"Right then. Here we are, Nfbdfrzxyw-land."

Rose quirked up an eyebrow at the Doctor, "The what? Sorry but how'd you even spell that?"

"No vowels?"

"Yeah... figured that," Rose replied with a smirk as she shook her head a bit and leaned on the rails in front of the door to the TARDIS. "So what's in... Neh-FebDef-Er-Zuw-ix-yuh-wuh Land?"

The Doctor tilted his head and grinned, "No, it's Nfbdfrzxyw, but it's alright, not many get it right the first time. This is the Land of The Sensias. Which is their fancy way of sayin' that they like givin' all your senses a bit of a work out. Most notably known for the Bunker of Baking. Beautiful thing the Bunker of Baking, just smells like a pastry shop times a hundred."

Rose took in a deep breath just thinking about that sort of a room.

"We're not there yet Rose."

"Oh I know, just gettin' my lungs used to those deep breaths. Mum had a mail order job once, sellin' fancy candles. Lit a whole mess of them one day when she realized she'd never sell them all. Place smelled like Gingerbread and Vanilla and Pine. The Pine sort of messed with the rest, but she thought it was Pineapple so I guess it was just a mistake. Still smelled good for a bit."

"Oh this'll smell fantastic and no odd tree scents stuffed in there either. Just go on Rose... through those doors. Should be right set to be in the middle of the Bunker."

Rose shifted her shoulders up in anticipation as she placed her hands on the door to the TARDIS pushing them open prepping her lungs for that first whiff of what she would only assume would be fantastic and yummy all at once, but instead there came a deafening roar or sound that was so loud Rose pushed her hands to her ears letting the TARDIS door swing wide open away from her.

She could see the Doctor's mouth moving but she couldn't hear a thing coming from him, even if she had her ears uncovered she was pretty sure she wouldn't make out a thing.

"WHAT??" Rose had shouted the word at him her features trying to concentrate on the shapes of the words, instead of letting her ears struggle for the sound of letters, but still she just saw movement, "WHAT???"

Finally the Doctor shook his head and brushed past her standing there with the sound flooding into the TARDIS, where he finally shut the doors and all Rose could hear now was a high pitched ringing sound.

"Srffy... gong corduroys...vat fuzzuh Zallif Astound."

Rose shook her head really unsure what he'd said now that actual words were making sounds, and she blamed the ringing in her head that seemed to be rattling around a bit too much.

"WHAT?" She still yelled, still feeling as if she'd been at a rock concert for four hours and now had that feeling like she had to talk above the sound in her head.

The Doctor took her hand and led her toward the console, dragging the monitor around and typing into it the phrase - Sorry Wrong Coordinates. That was the Wall of Sound.

"OH. THE WALL OF SOUND? NOT REALLY THE BUNKER OF BAKING?"

The Doctor smiled at her and shook his head, probably glad his own hearing didn't really mind all the noise, automatically adjusting to silence and loudness all the same. It wasn't a mystery really, of course how they'd ended up at the Wall instead of the Bunker was something else entirely, but Rose just pressed her finger to her ear trying to shake the ringing from her head while the Doctor spun the small wheel along the console and shouted something about Letter Duck something, and off they were again.

Her fingernails tapped against her teeth as she hesitated to ask if there was even a plan. She knew, really she always knew that the plan was that there was no plan, and if there had been even the thought of a plan it'd be changed before it even started, so mostly it was pointless to even plan. Still with her back pressed against the wall and her knees drawn up against her chest she felt a sigh coming on and didn't want it to escape her lips. Of course then the walls shifted again and the cranking sound behind her started again. The low vibration of metal grinding against metal felt in her spine down to her toes as she was scooted along with the wall.

The Doctor though was up onto his feet again, pressing his cheek to the wall, using the Sonic Screwdriver where he thought might trigger something. He worked at a maddening pace, shifting about the wall as it moved toward him. Feet taking those tiny steps back along with the wall, almost tripping himself up in the process. Rose just stayed put, knowing that by the end of it the denim pockets of her jeans would be more than just dusty and dirty, but well worn in spots where the seams overlapped, and frayed at the edge where her pocket kept folding over and back right again.

( In Trouble Again. )

"Murder of crows... how awfully dreadful," Rose comments as she wanders along the street. Head tipped up and jaw slightly agape staring at all of them just perched on the wires.

"Oh... Rose Neopagans thought they were Psychic! Or go by the European legends that they are the Carriers of Death and Doom... but really they're just protectors!"

"Of what? They're... quite ominous looking, sort of give me the chills a bit." Rose is trying not to notice how many of them there are, because the numbers are increasing by the minute, but The Doctor doesn't even seem to notice. He's still going on about some signal or noise pattern he picked up. The noise that brought them to this time and this place, and Rose is utterly convinced that they know. She's starting to subscribe to that NeoPagan belief a bit because it's like they know that they don't belong here, but he's just rushing ahead of her.

"It's not right... so many of them yeah?"

The Doctor pauses and turns to look at Rose, suddenly aware of just how startled the birds are making her. With a scratch at the back of his head for a moment he glances up to the phone wires along the street, "Oh... well that's beautiful!"

"Beautiful? They're crows! And they've been adding to their numbers since we started down this lane."

"Have they now?"

Rose stopped in her tracks, fists at her side as she glared at The Doctor, "Are you mad? You haven't been hearing them? They've been cawing up a bloody storm!"

"What?!"

"Oh... yeah you're real smart," chided Rose as she rolled her eyes a bit at him. He just grinned back at her trying to coax her the rest of the way. Shaking her head in a bit of dismay she picked up her step and met up with The Doctor keeping her stride close to his as he led them along the rest of the walk.

"So what is it then? This signal that you've picked up out here?"

"Ohhh, just this chatter. Chitter really. No... Chatter. Interesting bit of noise, with a slight.. ticking. I mean it's like a clicking. No... tapping?"

"Peckin' cause... well..." Rose glanced up ahead of them, not even noting that The Doctor had paused scratching his head while trying to sort out just what sort of noise he was hearing. Still rambling along Rose tugged on one trenchcoat sleeve, "Peckin' I'd say cause... of that."

"Ooooh... well now that is beautiful. A big beautiful Black Bird... and look at you! You're just tapping away at that aren't you!"

"You know what it is then?"

"Noooo... but it'll be fun trying to figure it out!"

"Yeah... just watch out for droppin's yeah?"