Mental

Through the Motions

Disclaimer: I doth not owneth Doctor Who. Thou should be knowing of this, verily. ((Chibi!Ace: ...I think all that work has fried her brain...))

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears: Ask and ye shall receive!! ((Hint hint, people!)) Anywho, this is the result of a Red Bull at 8AM, getting RedQueen33's request, and looking through my movie collection. Enjoy! :)

Three days into the New Doctor's stay at the Tyler Mansion - nobody had thought much as to giving him his own name - he and Rose were sitting in traffic when he started it. Just a simple statement, almost like a spoken thought, which didn't even make Rose look away from the road. Though that could have been because she was driving.

"Blimey, this place really is different isn't it?" He'd been staring out the window at the sky, speaking almost too quietly to be heard. But she did.

He didn't say anything for another two weeks. He'd taken the easiest name, John Smith, and Pete had created a past for him, Torchwood putting in records for everything from visits to the hospital to three traffic violations. After Pete was done explaining this to him one day at breakfast, he'd nodded and turned to Rose asking, "That the same as what they did for you?" She looked at him over the top of her glass of orange juice, and nodded after a moment.

Two months later, it was Tony's seventh birthday, and Pete had gotten him one of those little model cars that you have to put together and paint and will break if you breathe on it the wrong way. Tony had tried it himself a few times before asking John to help; in a little under an hour the pair had proudly presented the shiney 'car' to Rose.

John had grinned proclaiming, "Let's see Mr. I-Don't-Do-Domestic do that!"

Rose had laughed with him. "Probably would have blown it up." They watched as Tony whirled away and up the staircase to show Jackie. John winked at her, then headed for the kitchen, Rose watching him go with a thoughtful look on her face.

Everyone was settling after John's arrival, and by the next Christmas he was considered part of the family, despite being part alien and Jackie's occasional 'comments' on his and Rose's relationship. He passed his gifts for them around, grinning like...well, a kid a Christmas. To Pete he'd given a new mobile, as his last one was sort of exploded while on a mission for Torchwood. Jackie's had been a book she'd lost earlier that year. Tony had gotten a chemistry set. To Rose, John gave a photo album full of pictures of just the two of them. She'd smiled and kissed him, which made Tony make an "Ew!" sound as Jackie rolled her eyes.

For another three months everything was normal at the Tyler household. Then Rose started to have nightmares. All involving her adventures with the Doctor.

In the first one, she and the Doctor were on Women Wept, walking along and looking out over the frozen waves, just like what had actually happened. Then, suddenly, the Doctor turned to her, and told her to wait there, then started to walk away. After what felt in the dream to be hours, she finally followed him, the barren landscape of the planet creating a winding path to her destination, with Rose growing more panicked by the second. Finally she spotted the TARDIS on a nearby hill and started running towards it...when the door closed, and it started to dematerialise. By the time she'd reached the spot, the blue box was gone. And she was alone, stranded.

When she'd woke up, John was at her door, staring in worriedly, asking if she was alright. She shook her head and he walked in, sitting on the edge of her bed, reaching for her hand, and she explained the nightmare. He pulled her into a hug and said not to worry, that he was there, that she was safe now. He stood to go, but she grabbed onto his arm and asked him to stay. He smiled and nodded, and she moved over to let him lay down, where the couple fell asleep together, free from bad dreams.

The nightmares escalated over the next few months to the point that Rose was afraid to go to sleep without John beside her, though he couldn't always. One night he was out on a job for Torchwood - nothing dangerous, really, just picking something up from over at the Hub in Manchester - and Rose finally calmed herself enough to go to sleep. Her dream started out nice enough, she and John were sitting down watching a movie, and she was perfectly fine. Then she stood and left the room, walking down the hall and into another room. A light blinded her for a second, then she was standing in a big white room that felt familiar but her mind couldn't place it. Against one of the walls was a big, shiney lever, and Rose felt herself pulled toward it. Before she was even aware she'd moved, she was in front of the lever, hand reaching out for it.

The moment she touched the lever, a wind started up in the room. As she tried to pull away from the lever, the wind blew harder and harder and harder, until instead of pulled away she was clinging to the lever to keep from blowing away. The wind picked her off the floor, hands still wrapped around the lever like a scene in those old silent comedy movies. Rose was panicking, calling for help. Nobody was there. But then there was. The Doctor was standing in front of her, leaning against the wall several feet away, unbothered by the wind. He didn't seem to notice her. She called out to him. He looked at her after a moment, looking bored. She tried to reach out to him, but as soon as one of her hands was off the lever, the wind picked up and it was quickly returned. A sound reached her ears and she looked around for it, finally finding its source.

The Doctor was laughing at her.

Rose felt hurt as she watched him. He was laughing so hard he was almost doubled over, and the wind suddenly picked up harshly, her hands slipping off the lever. As she flew through the air she clenched her eyes shut. When her back collided with solid ground she opened her eyes to see she was suddenly on a beach. Looking around, she saw the TARDIS, which the Doctor was pulling a struggling John into. The only thing Rose was able to think was 'why was he taking him away?' As she started to run towards them, they seemed to get further away. John kept struggling to get to her as the Doctor dragged him along. She ran and ran and ran...

Then she was awakened by John shaking her, saying she'd been screaming. Rose immediaty threw her arms around him, still shaking. He shushed her, rubbing her back comfortingly and kissing her forhead. "It's okay Rosie, I've got you. I'll never leave you." Again, as most nights, he fell asleep beside her.

After that, her nightmares gradually faded, though she still would feel more than a little frightened at any mention of the Doctor. Jackie and Pete were as supportive as they could be; Jackie suggested therapy, but half of what had happened with the Doctor was classified even to Torchwood. Pete had, once, suggested that, maybe, the best thing to do was just to forget him. What followed was a silence that could have weighted down a small sun.

"He was trying to take you away from me." Rose whispered one night in bed, trying to pull John closer to her than the laws of physics wanted to allow.

John looked at her. "Why would he do that?"

She blinked at the question, but eventually the answer came. "He hates you."

"But aren't I him?"

"No." Rose answered back instantly. "But he thinks so."

John nodded, tracing patterns on her arm. "He hates himself. Did Davros say anything important about him?"

"That he changes people." She felt tired, but not enough to sleep. Her eyes were half-open as she stared at the ceiling.

"Was he right?" John questioned.

A pause. "Yes."

"How?"

"I'm not the same person from seven years ago. Neither is Mickey, or mum." Other images came from further in her mind and she frowned. "Or Adam. Or Jack. Or Donna."

John tilted his head. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Sometimes."

He rolled over to look at her, reaching a hand up to brush a few stray strands of hair from her face and letting his hand rest there, smiling softly. "Go to sleep, Rose. I'll take care of you."

She smiled back at him as her eyes drifted closed.

It was four years after John had first arrived on the so called Pete's World. He and Rose were sitting in a cafe in Paris, the stars twinkling overhead. John smiled up at them. "You know Rose, I think I found another name I quite like."

She looked up at him from over tea cup, eyebrow raised in a question. "What?"

"The Valeyard."

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears: Psychological stuff! Hooray!! And bona dea, this thing got LONG! O.O Anywho.... :) REVEIW!