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Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6,Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14,Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23, Chapter 24, Chapter 25, Chapter 26
Chapter 27. Retribution
Two weeks had passed since Rose had found her way back to the Doctor and Jack and things were both better and worse. Rose could cope with being touched now, although still reacted violently if she was caught unawares. However, the nightmares were, if anything, getting worse and she still didn’t feel safe. All attempts to coax her from the TARDIS had failed abysmally; even the lure of a deserted beach on an uninhabited planet had provoked a panic attack. She barely left the room she shared with the Doctor and, when she did, she hugged the walls, constantly afraid she was being followed. Her own inability to control her irrational fears was frustrating her further and the Doctor was growing increasingly worried about her health. Her blood pressure was unduly high, putting both Rose and her baby at risk. Nothing he and Jack had tried seemed to help and they were rapidly running out of ideas.
‘She needs to see him punished,’ Jack asserted.
‘I don’t think seeing Marcus again is a good idea.’
‘She’s still terrified. She knows he’s still out there. I’m telling you, Doc, she ain’t gonna relax until she knows he’s no longer a threat.’
‘She screams about him every night, Jack. How the hell is she going to react to seeing him again?’
‘She needs to, Doc. She’s turned him into some superhuman bogeyman. She needs to see him captured, defeated. She needs to know he can never touch her again.’
The Doctor sighed. ‘What do you have in mind?’
‘Koncoloz has a penal moon. I suggest we take him there.’ He looked at the Doctor carefully, weighing up whether or not to reveal the extent of his knowledge. ‘Rose isn’t the first pregnant woman to go missing from the planet and they suspect he may have been responsible for several other … disappearances.’
‘Disappearances?’
Jack looked away from his friend. ‘Most of the women have never been found.’
‘Most?’
‘One woman found her way back to the planet. She was severely injured. She and her child were … they died.’
The Doctor’s face was ashen. He buried his head in his hands, battling with thoughts of what had so very nearly happened to the two most precious beings in his life, of what had so very nearly been taken from him irrevocably.
‘I’ve spoken to the authorities. They’ve promised a swift trial and banishment to hard labour. We just have to bring him in.’
A heavy silence followed Jack’s announcement. Jack kept quiet, knowing the Doctor was wrestling with far more than the concept of justice.
‘I’m afraid of what I might do, Jack, if I see him.’ The Time Lord admitted finally.
‘I know. I’ll be there, Doc. I won’t let you do anything you’d regret.’
‘Do you really think you could stop me, if I chose to act?’ The Doctor’s voice was soft, but the suppressed menace and power of the Oncoming Storm was nonetheless powerfully evident.
‘If I have to, yeah. Can’t die, remember? I’ll get between you and him if need be.’
The Doctor looked at him then, seeing truth in the ex-time agent’s eyes. He drew in a deep breath, knowing in the end he had no choice.
‘Alright then. The TARDIS knows where to go. I’ll go and speak to Rose.’
‘She ought to be there, Doc, when we bring him in. She needs to see it. It won’t be enough just to be told about it. She needs to know he’s gone.’
The Doctor nodded. Reluctant as he was to expose Rose to Marcus once more, he knew that she would never truly heal until she was certain he no longer posed any risk to her or her child. Stiffening his spine, he went to find Rose.
************
He found Rose in their room, curled before the fire. The fire made her hair glow and he thought she looked like an angel, until she turned to look at him. If she was an angel she was a broken one, cast out of heaven and floundering in freefall.
‘You’re going after him,’ she stated. He gaped at her in surprise; she always had been able to read him.
She patted the cushion next to her and he moved to sit beside her obediently. She snuggled up against him, drawing his arms round her sides, bringing them to rest with hers against her abdomen.
‘Tell me.’ She said, leaning her head back against his shoulder.
He lifted one hand and began to gently stroke her hair. ‘It’s time. Jack has spoken to the police on Koncoloz. They’ve agreed to prosecute him.’ He paused. ‘You don’t need to come with us if you don’t want to.’
‘Yeah, I do. I don’t want to, but I need to.’ She twisted to look at him, ‘He’s all I see, in my dreams. I need to banish him, Doctor. Maybe seeing him behind bars will help me to do that.’
He nodded his understanding, enveloping her in his arms and his mind, holding her secure, holding back the world for just a little longer.
‘When?’ She asked.
‘As soon as you are ready.’ He responded.
‘Better make it now, yeah, before I change my mind?’ She smile was rueful but he saw the tremble of her lip and the fear hiding in her eyes.
He traced a finger along her jaw line. ‘I love you, flower. Have I told you that?’
‘Yep, but tell me again anyway!’ Her words were light-hearted but there was nothing light or joyous in either her tone or face. His Rose was still lost, caught in a labyrinth of hurt. He hoped desperately that seeing justice done might help guide her out; his love and care had failed.
He smiled sadly and captured her mouth in a tender kiss.
‘I’ll come and get you when we arrive, okay?’
She nodded, tilting her chin up bravely. Only her reluctance to relinquish his hand as he moved to leave betrayed her. Soon, she thought, soon it will be over. He heard her thought and hoped that she was right.
*************
The TARDIS materialised in the garden where she had found Rose fourteen days earlier. Rose waited by the ship as Jack and the Doctor stormed the house. Marcus was reclusive and had little in the way of staff, none of whom, as it turned out, felt any loyalty to their employer. Fewer than ten minutes passed before Rose spotted Jack and the Doctor striding back towards the ship, Marcus firmly ensconced between them.
He looked so innocuous, so soft, yet Rose’s heart stepped up its rhythm as he approached, her hands shaking and her skin crawling at the mere sight of him. Her head pounded and she felt her womb retract, instinctively rebelling at the possibility of his invasive touch. Hand pressed to her middle, she stared at him. He looked helpless but she knew he was not. As he looked at Rose he smiled and her fear reared up, wild and violent like a startled horse.
‘Hello Rose, good to see you again,’ Marcus exclaimed. Jack nudged him in the back with his blaster, making it clear talking to Rose was not permitted.
Rose gagged, feeling her chest tighten as panic intensified its grip. She pressed her hand more firmly against her stomach, desperately seeking reassurance that she and her baby were whole and intact, that he no longer owned them. He looked too confident. With a sudden dread that left her gasping she remembered his little toy. She’d told the Doctor about it, hadn’t she? Hadn’t she?
Pulse soaring, eyes horrified, she looked at the Doctor, opening her mouth to warn him. She was too late.
As her eyes sought the Doctor, Marcus was reaching into his waistcoat. Before anyone could intercept him he whipped out his pain giving devise and fired it at Rose’s abdomen.
Instinctively Rose reacted, raising her arms, screaming in denial and terror. Without conscious thought she flung the pain back at him on an angry retaliatory wave of her own, even as Jack raised his weapon and fired. For a moment everything was still, then Marcus thudded to the ground.
Rose stared in horror at the fallen man, his blue eyes wide and staring and plainly dead. Time seemed to stop as they processed the sudden cessation of a life, then Rose was shuddering, her huge eyes glazed and appalled.
‘Oh my god, I killed him. I killed him!’ The Doctor moved to support her as she slumped, her shocked limbs suddenly refusing to support her weight. Her breathing was quick and shallow, her skin white and pinched. ‘I killed him!’
Jack moved with alacrity, stepping between Rose and the body.
‘No Rosie, it wasn’t you. I shot him. You can see the blaster impact. It wasn’t you.’
Her glassy eyes sought Jack’s desperately. ‘It wasn’t me?’
Jack shook his head earnestly. ‘No, sweetheart, it was me.’
‘It really wasn’t me?’
The Doctor gripped her arms firmly, leaning forward and forcing her to look at him. ‘No, Rose, I promise. You didn’t kill anyone. Do you understand me? Rose?’
He shook her very gently, keeping her attention, willing her unfocused gaze towards lucidity.
‘It wasn’t you, Rose. Do you hear me? It wasn’t you!’
Rose blinked, looking at him and finally truly seeing him.
‘It wasn’t you, Rose.’ He repeated quietly.
Rose sobbed in relief, collapsing into the Doctor’s embrace. The Doctor met Jack’s eyes over her head, each acknowledging that the words might well be a lie but both silently confirming they were prepared to make it truth – Rose did not deserve this ugly man’s death on her conscience.
Stepping over Marcus’s body, Jack joined his friends, wrapping his arms round them, enfolding Rose in their dual embrace. Gently they eased her unsteady form inside. The real bogeyman was dead. Now maybe they could defeat the phantom that still haunted their girl.
Chapter 28
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