The Empire of the Wolf (1/6)

[country_who]

Title: The Empire of the Wolf
Author: country_who
Rating: PG
Genre: Action/Adventure
Characters: Captain Jack, The Doctor (10), Rose,
Pairing: Mild Ten/Rose
Summary: The Empire of the Wolf has finally risen.
Author's Note: Prompted by timelord1
Authors Note 2: I'm up past when I should be, but all mistakes are still mine. 

“What’cha doin’?” Rose voice floated under the console and into the Time Lord’s ears. She can’t see it, but just the sound of her voice brought a wide smile to his face, crinkling the edges of his eyes and making his hearts beat just a hint faster.  
           
“Fixing the hydro-cinoproperconverter,” the Doctor replied, as he pulled two random wires together to see what they did, out of Rose’s sight.

           
“Are you just saying that to sound smart, while you do something stupid?”
           
“No—Ahh!” the Doctor exclaimed, hopping out from under the console in a shower of sparks.
           
Rose gave him a pointed look, raising her eyebrow.
           
“Wha, you ‘ever  ‘een a ‘rown man ‘ix umthing efore?” The Doctor asked, while sucking on the ends of his fingers.
           
“Considering you weren’t fixing anything,” Rose said, pulling his fingers from his mouth so she could examine them. “No.”
           
The Doctor stuck his lower lip out in a Time-Lords-who-don’t-pout pout and folded his arms over his chest.
           
“I’ll have you know Tyler,” the Doctor started, extracting his fingers from her grip with a haughty sniff.  “That getting hurt while on a job of repairing something that’s broken is very, <i>very</i> manly.”
           
Rose stifled her laughter for a solid two seconds before bursting out in a howl of laughter and almost falling onto the grating.
           
“Rose?”  The Doctor whined, nudging her in the shin with his trainer. “Rose?”
           
Rose held up a hand, as she tried to contain herself. She took a deep breath and stood up straight.
           
“Sorry, but you being <i>manly</i>,” Rose said using a gruff voice on the last word. “Is very laughable.”
           
The Doctor put on a wounded expression.
           
“Hello,” the Doctor said, gesticulating wildly. “Oncoming Storm, remember?”
           
“Fine,” Rose conceded. “But, that’s when you’re fighting monsters, when you’re here with me.” Rose pulled him into a hug. “You’re a big softie.”
           
The Doctor hugged her contentedly for a moment, before pulling back again.
           
“You do mean metaphorically right?” the Doctor asked. “Because, I do have abs you know—rock solid abs at that…I mean…”
           
Rose nodded against his chest silencing him and pulling him back into a hug on the console chair.
           
“My manly Doctor,” Rose muttered.
           
“My beautiful…” the Doctor was jolted from his thoughts, as the TARDIS started bucking wildly.
           
The whole console seemed to shake with an impossible fury as the Doctor rushed to the console. He pulled the monitor out and his eyes widened.
           
“Oh no,” he muttered under his breath, but his words were taken as the cloister bell when off and the lights dimmed.
           
“Doctor!” Rose yelled.
           
“Hang on, Rose!” he screamed back. “We have a disturbance!”
           
The Doctor pulled a series of switches with his hands and reached his sneaker up to hit a lever. Smoke erupted from the console, and the lights went completely dark as the TARDIS crash landed.
           
The Doctor heard a loud crack as his connected with the console and everything went dark.

***
           
Rose woke with a start on the floor of the console room. She was confused at first, but soon the memories came flooding back to her.

<i>The Doctor…the disturbance…the crash…screams…the Doctor’s screams.</i>
           
“Doctor!?” Rose called out to him.
           
She shuffled in the dim light of the console room her hands in front over her feeling for him. She willed herself to feel his cool skin under her hand. She didn’t search long until she felt the smooth fabric of his suit underneath her hand.
           
“Doctor,” Rose sighed, while she released the breath that she hadn’t realized she was holding.
           
Reaching forward farther, she found his hair and ran her fingers down his face until she reached his neck. Gently, she pressed her fingers into his neck and felt his strong double pulse beating beneath her fingers.
           
She rolled him out flat on the grating as the TARDIS finally turned the lights back on.
           
“Thanks, girl,” Rose told her earnestly, as she began to check the Doctor over more carefully.
           
A dark bruise was already forming on his temple where a bit of blood trickled out from the center. Rose’s felt anxiety eat at her, but the TARDIS quickly mitigated her fears. She ensured her that the Doctor was not injured badly and shock would surely wake him.
           
“What kind of shock?” Rose asked the console.
           
The TARDIS projected an image of Jackie Tyler in all her glory.
           
“Cheeky girl,” Rose told the TARDIS, as she held back her hand and decked the Doctor good across his cheek.
           
I soft groan escaped his lips as he opened his eyes and glared at the console.
           
‘<i>Evil</i>,’ the Doctor thought to his ship.
           
The TARDIS projected an image of her outer shell, green light pooling out of her windows and a maniacal hum filling the air.
           
The Doctor cursed in Gallifrean under his breath and got to his feet with Rose’s assistance.
           
“Nice spike,” the Doctor exclaimed, cradling his cheek. “Have you ever thought of playing volleyball?”
             
Rose giggled, as she wiped some blood from his temple with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. The Doctor sucked in a pained breath but welcomed her gentle touch.
           
“So, shall we see what’s outside then?” the Doctor asked, holding out this hand—his fighting hand—for her to grab.
           
“Thank you, sir Doctor,” Rose replied, lacing her hand through his. “We shall.”
           
The Doctor giggled giddily and bounded out the doors.

***
           
The Doctor bounded out of the TARDIS, but Rose tugged him to a halt as she froze, staring at something behind the TARDIS.
           
“Rose? Come on,” the Doctor chided. “We have a disturbance to find.”
           
Rose swallowed thickly.
           
“I think I found it Doctor,” Rose told him, as she released his hand and ran behind the TARDIS. “Oh, Jack.”
           
She Rose knelt down next to the prone figure of her friend.
           
“Rose?” the Doctor knelt down next to Rose, being careful not to look at the fallen captain. “Leave him, come on, let’s get back in the TARDIS.”
           
The Doctor tried to tug her away, but she resisted.
           
“He’s our <i>friend</i> Doctor,” Rose told him. “We can’t leave him. Think about how many times he’s save our lives—saved <i>your</i> life.”
           
“Rose you don’t understand…” the Doctor started, but the sound of air rushing into oxygen starved lungs stopped him.

Piercing blue eyes opened to reveal a very alive Captain Jack Harkness.

           
“Jack!” Rose exclaimed, ignoring a very strange-acting Doctor and hugging her friend. “I didn’t know what happened. The Doctor said you were rebuilding the Earth, and then you were dead and now you‘re…you’re…oh God, I missed you.”
           
Jack smiled and hugged Rose back, and gave the Doctor a smile, which was only half returned.
           
“Hey now, Rosie, slow down,” he cooed. “I’m here and not gonna be leaving this place anytime soon…anytime at all really.”
           
Rose nodded into his chest before pulling back.
           
“What do you mean anytime soon?” Rose asked.
           
“You can’t die,” the Doctor replied bluntly behind them.
           
“Nope,” Jack confirmed.
           
“How?” Rose asked Jack.
           
“I was hoping you two could answer that one for me.” Jack directed his statement at the Doctor.
           
“Rose,” he said, but caught the confused look in her eyes, and he amended his statement. “The Bad Wolf in Rose’s body. You wouldn’t even remember, Rose. But, you died on the Game Station, Jack, but Rose brought you back. The power of the Time Vortex running through her head—the power to destroy a million worlds and turn the universe into a bucket of sand—and she brought you back. The last act of the Time War was life, but she couldn’t control it, and she brought you back forever.”
           
Rose hung her head low, realizing the curse that she had bestowed on her best friend.
           
“I’m sorry,” Rose told him earnestly, stepping back as if she thought he never wanted to see her again.
           
“It’s alright,” Jack told her. “I forgive you.”
           
“Really?”
           
“Of course I do,” Jack told her honestly, and he swept Rose into a hug.
           
The Doctor took a step back, but Jack wouldn’t have it.
           
“Come on Doctor,” Jack told him, holding out an arm. “You look especially cuddly in this regeneration.”
           
“Told you,” Rose told him in a sing song voice.
           
“I’m manly,” the Doctor muttered.
           
Jack and Rose stifled their giggles as the reluctant and very manly Time Lord joined in for a group hug.
           
The group of old friends were completely oblivious to the new surroundings they were in and that they had now entered the empire of the wolf.