Who Fic - Live Concert 3/3
Mar. 18th, 2009 11:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sapphire_child
Title: Live In Concert 3/3
Fandom: Doctor Who/Lost
Characters: Rose Tyler, Nine, Ten, Jack Harkness, Charlie Pace, Mickey Smith
Spoilers: up to The Idiots Lantern
Summary: Desmond isn’t the only time traveler that Charlie Pace ran into during his time as a rock star. Two different Doctors and two different reasons bring Rose Tyler into his life.
Disclaimer: Lost and Doctor Who don’t belong to me. Duh.
PART ONE PART TWO
Rose had been playing Mickey’s stupid CD at full blast in her room for hours now and the Doctor had long since run out of things to tinker with in the console room. The truth was that the TARDIS was well and truly fixed after her crash landing in a parallel universe had almost killed her – but with the state Rose was in at the moment...well he was inclined to give her some space and if that meant extra time for the TARDIS then he knew his rather magnificent time ship wouldn’t complain.
Not that it hadn’t been difficult to fix her up again – with a bit of creative mechanical work and some bastardised parts scavenged from around London, the Doctor had patched the TARDIS up sufficiently to once again start travelling the furthest reaches of the galaxy. When he announced this notion to his companion however, Rose had merely huddled further into the couch and changed the channel on the television.
She’d been somewhat upset since Mickey had...well maybe upset was the wrong word. If the Doctor had to choose one he’d probably go more with mopey-self-flagellation which was really three words, even if you did say them really really fast...but that was beside the point. And really, as of late only pertained to the time that had passed since Mickey had stayed behind which, in relative time had been maybe...ooh two weeks at most?
Two weeks with the TARDIS parked in Jackie’s living room. This fact alone was enough to make the Doctor feel more than a little bit desperate. His feet were itching with the need to be moving on again but Rose was so stuck in her funk that nothing seemed likely to rouse her anytime soon and god knows both he and Jackie had tried.
It took close to two and a half weeks but when Rose finally decided that it was about time to head back into the vortex again her announcement was met with simultaneous cries of “Thank god!” from her mother and companion both. Once packed, Rose kissed her mother goodbye as if in a daze and then she sloped into the TARDIS, the Doctor bounding on his toes behind her, eager to be off.
“Oi you,” Jackie grabbed his elbow as Rose disappeared inside, lugging her bag. “I want a word with you.”
“Jaaaaackie,” the Doctor groaned, tugging futilely at her grasp.
“Oh shut it would you?” Jackie said sharply, tugging the door shut and then forcibly steering him away from the TARDIS. The Doctor eyed her desperately but Jackie gave his arm a quick shake to get his attention. “And stop pouting, this’ll only take a second.”
“Literally a second?” the Doctor pressed but then shrank back when Jackie glared at him. “Right. Sorry. Carry on!”
“It’s about Rose.”
The Doctor eyed Jackie Tyler warily. He was not altogether certain that he wanted to be having conversations like this with Rose’s mother. “What about her?”
“She’s feelin’ guilty about what happened with Mickey.” Jackie told him quickly, glancing furtively at the doors to the TARDIS as she spoke, as though worried her daughter might come flailing back out again at any moment. “Feels like she led him on too long then made him feel like rubbish by ignoring him all the time when she was with you.”
“But she’s never told me any of that,” the Doctor said, momentarily baffled. “Why on earth would she feel like that?”
“Probably because she should,” Jackie crossed her arms at him. “If there’s one thing I know about my daughter it’s that she’s honest. She told me she was a right cow to him and that you weren’t much better.”
“He wanted to come,” the Doctor blustered defensively. “It isn’t my fault that he didn’t enjoy himself!”
“He deserved better than to be the third wheel,” Jackie countered him bluntly. “And you know it.”
The Doctor scuffed his shoe against the carpet feeling irrationally and impossibly small under Jackie’s scrutiny. This, he reminded himself, was why he had never done the whole family thing before. His pride still stung when he thought about the slap Jackie had bestowed upon him in his previous body.
“Well what do you want me to do about it?” he blurted finally. “I can’t exactly pop by and pick him up again.”
“Take Rose somewhere that’ll make her feel better,” Jackie told him simply, her eyes strangely bright. “I don’t care where. Just don’t let her stew on this. She feels bad enough already.”
Assuming this was the end of the inquisition, the Doctor fled into the TARDIS and dematerialised as fast as he could. By the time he had settled them properly into the Vortex however, Rose had well and truly gone into an attack of what the Doctor had dubbed the ‘sulky-mopeys’ and she soon after disappeared into the depths of the ship. Not long after that, he began to hear the distant vibrations of music that with some careful cataloguing he identified as DriveShaft.
It appeared that during their interminable exile at the Powell Estate, Rose had made a trip to Mickey’s flat and defiled his CD collection. Lovely.
And now, after hours of becoming very attuned to one Charlie Pace’s bass riffs, the Doctor had abandoned all pretence and arrived at her door. She didn’t answer his knock and the door was ajar so he poked his head in and found her sprawled across the bed, CD blasting in the background.
“Rose.” He said to announce his presence.
She stayed exactly where she was, sprawled on her back, blonde hair spilling over the edge of the bed and her eyes shut. She seemed to be rather studiously ignoring him – or he mused, maybe she had just been deafened by the tremendous racket coming from the CD player.
“Roooooooose.” he said again, wheedling now. “Are you going to stay in here all day?”
Opening her eyes lazily, Rose saw him, sighed, and then closed them again.
“Probably.” she muttered.
The Doctor crossed the threshold then, muttering and grumbling. If she was going to continue to be like this then he may as well have stayed in London with her. At least there she had her mother to distract her and make her endless cups of teas. He’d never been all that good with all this touchy-feely-domesticy-family-y...stuff.
“Can’t you just stop being so mopey?” he wondered, flopping down next to her. Rose didn’t answer him and the Doctor sighed as he propped himself up onto his elbow. “Look,” he said after a moment and then before he quite knew it he was saying, “I know something that’ll cheer you up.”
“What’s that?” Rose frowned, rolling onto her back to look at him.
Bugger. She’d always been good at asking curly questions, his Rose.
“A trip!” the Doctor announced with a wild amount of over-enthusiasm. “Into time – and space! Isn’t that exciting?”
“I don’t really want to go on a trip right now Doctor,” Rose said flatly, turning her face away. “Can’t we just stay here?”
“Oh but this isn’t just any trip,” the Doctor informed her, dancing around the bed to grasp her hands and haul her to her feet. He was still improvising but she didn’t need to know that. “We’re going to go see something truly spectacular!”
“Do we have to?” Rose groaned as she tugged herself gently out of his grasp. “I’d rather just sleep.”
“Tough!” the Doctor said, and when she began to protest further he took her around the waist, hoisted her up on his shoulder with ease and then headed out into the corridor. “I’m taking you and that’s that.”
“Oi! Put me down!” Rose raged, smacking him indignantly and kicking her legs. “You can’t make me go anywhere I don’t want to!”
“Oh trust me,” the Doctor said, mind still racing frantically. “You’ll want to go...here. Well, there really because we’re here right now aren’t we?”
“You’re not makin’ any sense again,” Rose continued to swat at him with wild hands but he barely even noticed her blows.
“Oi, stop wriggling about would you?” he said eventually, mildly irritated as he continued to cart her along, now heading towards the wardrobe. “Honestly. It’s like trying to hold onto a Moghuatyrian and believe me, that’s no mean feat.”
Rose abruptly paused in her flailing to experiment with this new word. “What’s a Mog...a Moghua...?”
“Mog-hu-a-tyrian.”
“A Moghu-a-tyrian?”
“Well it’s funny that you should ask me that Rose,” the Doctor said conversationally. “Because it’s a rather fascinating species that lives on the twin planets of Th and Tja in the Poseidon system and they look very much like a cross between a squirrel and a squid. With the way you were flailing about just then you very much resembled one.”
“Oi!” Rose said, indignantly straightening her t-shirt after he set her down. “You sayin’ I look like some...some sort of weird...tentacled...thing?”
“Did I tell you we’re going to a bar?” the Doctor said abruptly and tossed Rose a leather jacket. It hit her full in the face and she grumbled but reluctantly pulled it on. This was a positive sign – she was beginning to wane. “Come on then,” he said cheerfully. “First lot of drinks are on me.” Once she was suitably attired and he had changed his collar and tie for something slightly more casual, they retired to the console room and the Doctor set course for an experience that he desperately hoped would help lift Rose’s flagging spirits.
“Where are we?” she wanted to know the moment they stepped out of the TARDIS and into... “An alleyway?”
“Not just any alleyway Rose Tyler – an alleyway that leads off Oldham Street I hope,” the Doctor said hopefully as they stepped out into the street. “Manchester. England. Earth.”
“And...when are we?”
“July the twenty-third. Hopefully in 1999...” the Doctor said absently, eyeing a faded posted on a nearby wall that was advertising various local music acts. “Aha! Spot on.”
“That’s a first,” Rose muttered.
“Oi!” The Doctor pretended to be wounded but he couldn’t help but notice how the corners of Rose’s lips were trying to turn upwards. She was still fighting it but at least she seemed less moody out here in the crisp night air. Moving about always seemed to do her the world of good – she wasn’t much of a sit still person.
Encouraged, the Doctor led her into a bar that Rose was only dimly aware of and he ordered drinks for both of them. She gulped down half of whatever he’d ordered for her in one go and, aware of his worried stare, Rose turned away from him to take her second gulp.
It was as she went to swallow that she noticed a clamour of movement on the small stage up the back and suddenly she caught sight of very young Charlie Pace clambering over leads and amplifiers, reaching out a long fingered hand for his bass guitar.
Rose was so taken aback that she nearly ended up with a mouthful of drink down the front of her jacket. He looked so young – so clean cut. There was no eyeliner here, no nail polish. He was dressed plainly in a faded Pink Floyd t-shirt, black Converse peeking out from beneath the tattered hems of his jeans.
“Hold on – I thought we weren’t allowed to cross our own timelines!” she turned to the Doctor accusingly. “Doesn’t this...I dunno, breach some law of time or something?”
“Well he already knows you in his future,” the Doctor shrugged and took a sip of his drink. “Why not from here? Now?”
Rose merely watched, dumbfounded, as the other members of the band took up their positions and Liam – she still remembered him vividly from their last encounter – introduced the band before they launched into the first half of their set.
Their sound was obviously still developing – they performed a lot of cover songs and they didn’t have anywhere near the same level of confidence in their performance as the first time Rose had watched them. Charlie was all but shrinking into the corner and even Liam seemed somewhat shy, awkwardly strangling the microphone stand.
The Doctor listened intently, one foot tapping restlessly and a small smile on his face. After the first set finished, he nudged Rose gently. “What d’you think?”
“I dunno,” she admitted. “I don’t get why you brought me here...well, now.”
“Welll...I thought it might cheer you up a bit,” the Doctor admitted, hand creeping up to rub his neck in an all too familiar gesture. “You’ve been listening to Mickey’s CD on repeat and...well music always seems better when it’s performed live I think. Welll...except for some artists which by the way I’m not going to name in case you like them and get more upset – by the way I don’t much like it when you’re upset. And Charlie seemed nice enough last time and I thought that maybe you might like to...well we’ve got a time machine after all and...I thought it’d be nice to pop in and say hello.”
Rose considered him for a moment and then the briefest presence of a smile touched the corners of her lips once again. Leaning forward, she threw her arms around him and pressed a kiss against his cheek.
“I’m guessing that this is you being cheered up?” he laughed, sounding altogether very pleased as he put his arms around her in turn and squeezed tightly. Rose nodded against his shoulder and then pulled back, their arms still around each other. She smiled shyly up at him and then to his delight it turned into a proper Rose grin, wide and bright and brilliant.
“Can we move a bit closer for the second set?” she wanted to know.
“Rose Tyler,” the Doctor announced with a grin to rival hers. “For you I would sit right next to the speakers and brave every single off-key note this lot are playing with my super sensitive hearing. And that - that is saying a lot.”
The second half of the show was briefer than the first but somehow Rose managed to clap and cheer the band into doing an encore performance, a cover of ‘Wonderwall’ in which – to her delight – Charlie actually stepped up and sang the whole song by himself with his brother backing him up for once.
He looked nervous as he sang but very pleased with himself nonetheless, especially when Rose whistled and clapped him off the stage, cheering his name. When the band made their way to the bar for drinks afterwards he split off from the group and instantly made a beeline for her, eyes sparkling.
“Wotcher,” he said, offering a hand and a wide smile that made his eyes crinkle up.
“Hello,” Rose said, beaming back at him. “You guys were brilliant.”
“We were alright,” Charlie shrugged and the Doctor took the opportunity to smile wanly and slip off to the bar. “Is that your boyfriend?”
“Not really.” Rose said somewhat awkwardly.
“Will he mind if I buy you a drink?”
Charlie’s eyes were really shining now, his whole face a picture of utterly mischievous glee and Rose blinked before grinning. She’d seen that same look on the Doctor’s face and it pushed a swell of happiness bubbling up into her body.
“Only if you promise to tell me why you were starin’ at me while you were playing,” she teased him.
“Before or after you started carrying on at the end?”
“Before,” Rose set her tongue between her teeth and waited.
Charlie raised an eyebrow. “Smile like yours? You made the whole room light up luv.”
“Well aren’t you just the charmer?” Rose laughed.
“I try,” Charlie shrugged and then beckoned the barman over. “So what’re you having then...?”
“Rose,” she told him. “Rose Tyler.”
“Hello Rose Tyler, I’m Charlie Pace.”
“I know,” she grinned. “I’m a big fan of your music.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Charlie said dryly after they had placed their orders. “Being as you’re clearly not from Manchester and I’m certain nobody outside of this place has heard of us. Where’re you from then?” he glanced over her attire quickly and then considered her. “Let me guess. London?”
“Originally yeah. I travel a lot.”
“Ooh,” Charlie grinned suddenly. “A city bird who likes to travel? Let me guess – posh family?”
“Not really,” Rose said, thinking of the Powell Estates and the modest flat she’d grown up in. It was surreal to know that elsewhere she was barely a teenager, having spats with her mother about nail polish and boys. “M’just lucky.”
“That must be nice,” Charlie said with a sigh, nodding his thanks to the barman as he placed their drinks before them. “I’ve never had any decent luck. If I had then maybe I’d’ve won the lottery by now and built us a recording studio instead of spending all my spare change buying new amps every time we break one.”
“Well we don’t really have much money to travel,” Rose admitted. “We just sort of make do. I’ve been to all sorts of places and we’ve barely spent a penny the whole time.”
“I’d love to travel,” Charlie said wistfully, toying with the rim of his glass. “See the world – you know?”
“Trust me I know,” Rose laughed and then leant forward, suddenly excited. “Where d’you want to go? I mean, if you could pick your dream tour to take the band on where would you want to go?”
Charlie considered his options for a moment, glassy eyed. “I’d love to visit Australia,” he admitted finally. “Learn how to surf. Probably America. Paris, India, Germany...”
He continued on for a while, listing countries and cities that even Rose hadn’t heard of (or travelled to). As he spoke he became more and more excited and Rose’s heart tugged with sympathy. He was so young, so hopeful. Little did he know that in five years...
“Not that we’ll ever get to choose where we go on tour,” Charlie said eventually, ruefully. “We’re not really that good – probably won’t tour any further than London – if we’re really lucky.”
“I like your music,” Rose insisted. “I think you’ve got a lot of potential.”
“That’s sweet of you luv,” Charlie smiled ruefully. “But one girl liking our music isn’t going to get us a recording contract anytime soon.”
“I’ve got a feeling,” Rose told him with a wink. “That your band is gonna go further than you could ever dream of. You’ve just got to believe in yourselves.”
“Oh yeah?” Charlie waggled his eyebrows at her. “Should I click my heels together three times and wave my magic wand as well?”
Rose laughed. “I’m serious. Things’ll go good for you soon. Trust me.”
“Wish I shared your optimism,” Charlie took another pull from his drink. “You’re the one living the dream life. How’d you get started travelling anyway?”
“By accident actually,” Rose said, smiling. “I was working in a shop and then one day this man just...appeared in my life. He swooped me up and next thing I knew I was seein’ the most amazing things. Things I never thought I’d see in a million years.”
“Sounds great,” Charlie admitted. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch,” Rose told him. “He just wanted company, someone to travel with him so he’d have someone to share it all with.”
“So he pays for it all?” Charlie pressed.
“Sort of,” Rose said evasively. “It’s...not exactly your usual kind of travelling.”
Charlie’s brow furrowed but he looked amused. “What, do you get around in a horse drawn carriage or something?”
“A big blue box actually,” Rose said and at Charlie’s expression she laughed. “You should come with us,” she blurted suddenly. “Come travelling with us.”
Charlie stared. “What – seriously?”
“Yeah. Deadly,” Rose leant forward onto her elbows. “What d’you say?”
“Your friend who isn’t your boyfriend in the snappy suit over there wouldn’t mind?”
“Course not,” Rose insisted. “We’ve had other people travel with us too. Like my friend Mickey he...”
She broke off suddenly and Charlie waited patiently for her to finish and when she didn’t he frowned. “Hey, you alright?”
Rose took a deep breath and then looked up at Charlie, choking slightly on her words. “Not really. He doesn’t travel with us anymore because...well because of me. I was a right proper cow to him and he just got sick of it all. Found something better to do with himself – something that didn’t involve me.”
“What’d you do to him?” Charlie asked, surprised. “Make him run along behind this blue box of yours? Put him on the roof rack?”
Rose laughed humourlessly. “No. I just...I led him on a bit when I shouldn’t’ve and now I think I might’ve lost him.”
“Is that what you’re doing to me?” Charlie wanted to know and suddenly he looked quite serious, his eyes darkening. “Leading me on? Telling me stories, trying to get me to travel with you?”
Rose mouthed soundlessly at him. “I didn’t mean...”
“Listen,” Charlie interrupted her. “I know we only just met and everything but...this Mickey bloke? Whatever happened, whatever you did – you obviously feel like an arse about it right?”
“Yeah,” Rose said, sniffing slightly.
“Does he know that you feel like that?”
“No.”
Charlie shrugged and laughed. “So go tell him then.”
“It’s not that simple,” Rose insisted. “He’s not exactly living down the road anymore.”
“You travel though,” Charlie pointed out. “Can’t you and pinstripes make a detour?”
“Not when he’s half a world away from us,” Rose muttered.
“Well who’s being a negative Nancy now eh?” Charlie nudged her and indicated that the barman should top up her glass. “Five minutes ago you were telling me that my luck was going to change and now you’re all mopey about some bloke you used to fancy.” Rose startled slightly when he lifted a hand, but he did nothing more remarkable than touch her hair softly. “You travel long enough luv, you’ll bump into him again. Right time, right place and all that.”
Rose said nothing, turning his words over in her head. “Right time,” she echoed.
“Right place,” Charlie affirmed and took his hand back, grimacing when he caught sight of the time on his watch. “Speaking of which, I have to head back to mine soon. Sleep and food and all that. Same old bollocks, you know.”
Rose glanced over at where the Doctor was creating a tower out of cocktail umbrellas, a bemused barman looking on. “Yeah. I think I’d better stop him before he hurts himself,” she admitted, turning back to Charlie with a wry grin. “Every time I let him out of my sight he does something daft.”
“I can imagine,” Charlie said dryly. “Never trust a man in a suit.”
They went to shake hands but at the last moment, Rose hugged him instead and she felt him smile against her neck.
“If you’re around for the next gig you should come,” Charlie said as he pulled back, touching his thumb to the tip of her nose. “In the meantime cheer up yeah? You’re too pretty to not be smiling.”
He smiled at her and Rose couldn’t help but break out into a grin in return. “Oh don’t you worry,” she told him. “You’ll be seeing me again one day. Keep an eye out when you make it down to London.”
And with that she waved cheekily at him and headed back to the Doctor, thoroughly enjoying the look of puzzled bewilderment on Charlie’s face.
The Doctor was uncharacteristically quiet as they walked back to the TARDIS together, Rose slipping her hand into his for the first time in days but once they were in the Time Vortex and Rose was beginning to get worried he chimed in with, “You know what? I think I’m in the mood for a bit more rock and roll.”
“Oooh...the Rolling Stones?” Rose guessed hopefully. “What about the Beatles? I always fancied meeting John Lennon – mum’d be so jealous!”
“How about Elvis?” he grinned at her across the console and then with a yank on the handbrake, the TARDIS began hurtling through time and space.
“Elvis!” Rose squealed breathlessly once they’d bumped to a stop and she’d picked herself up off the floor. “The Elvis Presley?”
“Better go find yourself some fifties garb from the wardrobe,” the Doctor crossed his arms and grinned smugly. “I’ll wait here shall I?”
“I’ll be back in a minute!” Rose stretched up on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek before dashing out of the console room.
The Doctor shook his head at her, but he was chuckling nonetheless. A minutes worth of getting ready for Rose would doubtlessly be closer to forty. Not that he minded – anything to make this girl smile.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 10:02 pm (UTC)But I could not resist one with my two fav guys, Doctor and Charlie.
Great job. Wonder if they would meet a 3rd. time...maybe in the plane?? and they leave just as it's about to crash..you know cause they can not change the time lines.
gooooooooood job
no subject
Date: 2009-03-18 11:26 pm (UTC)Thanks for reading!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-19 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-19 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-20 04:51 am (UTC)Oh Charlie, so young and...not drug addicted. Though I did rather like the eyeliner...mmmmmmmm
Great ending, I aboslutely love it!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-22 05:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-20 07:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-22 05:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-17 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 05:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-08 01:57 am (UTC)And as for the Doctor not looking like he's too old for Driveshaft? Well, Locke would say "I'm over 40, not deaf." :)
Okay, so I changed my mind -- while I do of course, still want more Art of Being Human, I think you should do a sequel to this. I bet the Doctor would have a lot to say about a place like the Island........
no subject
Date: 2010-10-09 11:46 am (UTC)LOLL. Of course he would ;)
Hahaha. I'd love to write more stuff with Charlie and Rose actually but I'm a bit late for the TTU challenge methinks :) another time maybe.