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Her grandmother hadn’t been lucid for days. Lily Tyler hated to see her like this – wasting away from some unknown force and the drugs confusing her once vibrant mind. The older woman slept fitfully, murmuring about strange dreams and even stranger worlds. Whenever her grandmother opened her eyes, she would see a fearsome light for a fraction of a second before her grandmother could blink it away.
It scared her. Grandmother Rose had been the one unchanging force in her world. She was all Lily had left now, her parents having died in the second Hieratic invasion when she was just five. Without her grandmother as an anchor, Lily didn’t know what she would do with herself.
The change had started shortly after her nineteenth birthday. She had known her grandmother could get lost the memories of days long past, but Grandpa Jack usually knew how to bring her back down to earth. It was different now that he too had passed on. They had always known he was destined to go out in one final act of bravado, but they thought his death would involve aliens. Instead he had died saving the world from a very man-made virus. Her grandmother had cried for days.
Her Grandpa Jack was larger than life. She particularly loved the outlandish stories he used to regale her with as a child. Even with her early exposure to Torchwood, she could hardly believe them. Her favorite story involved a man named the Doctor and the Slitheens. Grandmother Rose used to get really nostalgic over that one.
Lily often feels that there is no possible way could be related to this purposeful and decisive woman. Lily could never stick to one thing. She had failed her A Levels, and only her family connection got her a low-level assistant job at Torchwood.
Her grandmother held an undying faith in her. On those rare days when Rose would speak of her youth, she would tell her granddaughter how she too was aimless as a teenager. And then she would say with that rare spark in her eyes, “Just you wait Lily. One day your adventure will begin. And when it happens, it will be fantastic.”
Lily never quite believed her grandmother, which made it all that much worse to see her sick now. She fears that her grandmother will not be around long enough to celebrate, when she finally finds that elusive adventure.
She had spent the last several weeks by her grandmother’s bedside, ignoring all else except for her Torchwood shifts, which were becoming especially tortuous. Everyone knew of her family there – they were legends, and people looked at her so expectantly, like she would be the one to lead the organization into the future. Her watch beeps to remind her that she has thirty minutes to make it to her next shift and she reluctantly leaves her grandmother behind.
**
The air felt different when she returned that night, as if it were filled with energy, and there was a man by her grandmother’s bedside, tenderly holding her hand and whispering softly to her. Another one in the parade of strangers from Torchwood stopping by to check in on Rose, but they usually didn’t stop in this late.
She thinks the man doesn’t notice her until he asks “How long has she been like this?” his sharpness betraying his concern.
“She’s been in the hospital for several weeks now, but I suspect that it’s been going on for much longer. I think she has been putting on a brave face for me,” she finds herself confessing. “Even the Torchwood doctors don’t know what is wrong. They think she may have absorbed too much radiation from an alien device.”
It’s a likely story, but deep down Lily doesn’t believe it. She doesn’t know what to believe. All she knows is that her grandmother is slipping away. His answer startles her.
“The time vortex will do that to you. But I thought I had taken care of that,” he says with a defeated slump in his shoulders. His gaze never leaves her grandmother.
Rose stirs in bed, her brow furrowed as if it were a great struggle to find the present. She blinks, her eyes slowly focusing, but this time they don’t lose the golden glaze.
“Is it really you? I’ve had so many dreams of late. Terrible lonely dreams of so many other worlds. Always searching.”
He sighs heavily and leans towards her, cupping her cheek in his right hand all the while still clasping her hand with his left.
Lily can sense the powerful connection between them, and the glow that she had thought she’d imagined surrounding her grandmother is unmistakable now. Rose smiles and laughs as if his presence has renewed her strength.
“You know I saved this world another twenty times after you left. One time with just chips! You know, I could do with some chips. Why do hospitals never have chips?”
“You fought a Leptinotarsa Decemlineata?” he can’t hide his giddy amusement as he interrupts her. “Oh of course you did. The peanut oil is toxic to them.”
The corners of his eyes crease in concern as he shifts back to the melancholy.
“I always knew you’d come back one last time. Just didn’t think you’d make me wait for my deathbed,” she jokes.
“I had to come back,” he says seriously. “You became part of the time vortex, and despite everything I did to fix that, it never completely left you. You’re holding it in place, but when you die, it will create a rift. I have to fix that.”
Lily can’t help getting choked up at how they are so casually discussing her grandmothers death. Her grandmother is a fighter; she doesn’t understand why she is giving up now.
“Likely story. There’s always a rift that needs closing – Torchwood can handle that. You’d be proud of how far we’ve come.” Her grandmother watches his reaction with a rare expression of devotion. “I know why you’re really here. You can’t let me die without saying it.”
“What?” he screws up his face. “But you knew. You always knew.”
“Of course I did, but it’s still nice to hear it.” Her lips quirk. “So do I get to become part of the TARDIS?” she asks unable to hide her curiosity.
“Well, I suppose the energy of the vortex will return to TARDIS.”
“Hah. Now you get to stroke me for eternity.” She laughs, amused by her own private joke. After a moment though, she looks at him seriously. “I’m ready, Doctor.”
He closes his eyes in concentration, and Rose begins to glow with a brilliant burning light. The years fade away and she is youthful again. Lily even thinks they could be mistaken for sisters.
When the man opens his eyes, they are brimming with tears, yet he smiles brightly and says, “I love you Rose Tyler. Always have, always will.” He leans in for one last lingering kiss.
Lily realizes it should be strange seeing someone other than her grandfather kiss her grandmother with so much intensity, but somewhere deep inside of her it makes sense. The kiss is pure and radiant and shines so brightly that Lily has to shield her eyes with her hand against the pulsing white light. The air hums and Rose lets go with a sob, losing all substance, and releases into a swirling mass of energy and love.
The doctor stands there, bemused, long after Rose has dissipated into the night. When he turns around, Lily can see the silent tears streaming down his face. And though Lily has just lost the last of her family, she senses this man’s sorrow and loss is infinitely greater. She feels compelled to reach out to him, so she takes his hand in hers.
It isn’t until she squeezes his hand reassuringly that he notices her by his side. He raises their hands up and studying them intently and then turns back to her abruptly. “Lily Tyler,” he states with a warm affectionate grin.
She suddenly gets the feeling that she has signed a secret pact. She has no idea what she has agreed to, but she feels itchy to leave the room, London even, now that she no longer has any ties here.
He is studying her, debating something, and she imagines some of the broken pieces inside him are gluing themselves back together as he decides to go for it.
“Care for a spin around the galaxy?”
It sounds like one of the crazy fantastic adventures her grandmother had spoken so fondly of. And it is the most natural thing in the world to lace her fingers through his and say yes.
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