Chapter 1
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The Doctor’s head was pounding as he struggled to sit up. Taking in his surroundings, he realized her was in a jail cell… again. The last thing he remembered was trying to take Rose to see Ian Drury. How had he gotten here? More importantly, where was Rose?
He tried to push himself to his feet, but his limbs felt heavy and his forearm burned. His sleeve was halfway rolled up in an attempt to find the cause of the pain when a shockingly familiar voice caused him to pause.
“You ok, boss?” Mickey asked. “You’ve been passed out for a while now. Shouldn’t have resisted arrest, but at least you didn’t feel it when they did this.” Mickey held up his arm to show a fresh tattoo. Well, more of a branding. “Burned like hell, this did. The TARDIS aint translatin’ the words, though. Not sure why.”
The Doctor, on the other hand, could read the words without the translation circuits and had no doubt as to why his ship wasn’t translating them. Both of their arms read Property of Rose M. Tyler.Although the Doctor’s included a symbol that marked him as her alpha mate, a not so small part of him preened at that.
He rubbed the back of his neck as Mickey helped him to a nearby stool. Why was Mickey here anyway? Judging from the language on the tattoo this definitely wasn’t Earth. Had Rose asked if Mickey could come? He couldn’t remember, and it was bothering him.
The Doctor was just about to ask Mickey what was going on when Rose’s voice came from the other side of the bars. “You two really shouldn’t wander off on a matriarchal planet without your mistress or your shackles.”
Relief flooded him and the Doctor looked up to see her grinning like mad and dangling two pairs of golden handcuffs from her wrists. A smile tugged at his lips. There was something enthralling about seeing her coming to his rescue, and something titillating about seeing her with handcuffs. Not that simply seeing Rose smile at him like that wasn’t enough to make his hearts race on its own, because it most definitely was.
“And next time, you should just go quietly. The fines for concubines resisting arrest are pretty hefty.” Rose had attached the golden cuffs to both his and Mickey’s wrists and started to lead them back to the TARDIS. “Good thing I had an unlimited credit stick and the psychic paper.”
The Doctor stopped them before they could leave the cell. “Rose, this is going to sound a bit daft, but where are we?”
“Amazonia Prime,” Rose replied, giving him a quizzical look. “You alright?”
“He resisted arrest, and they sprayed him with this stuff to knock him out,” Mickey supplied while adjusting the cuff on his wrist. “The Doctor was out for about an hour.”
“And now you don’t remember where we are?” Rose scrunched her nose and studied his eyes. “What’s the last thing you do remember?”
The Doctor momentarily closed his eyes, trying to force the memories to come back. “I was taking you to see Ian Drury,” he answered reluctantly. “How long ago was that?”
“Blimey,” Rose said, letting out a slow breath. “Bout two months ago, I think. Mickey’s been with us, what? Three weeks, Micks?”
“Bout that, yeah,” Mickey confirmed.
“So you don’t remember Queen Victoria and the Werewolf? Sarah Jane and the Krillitains?” Rose probed.
“Sarah Jane? My Sarah Jane?” the Doctor asked, smiling and noticed that Rose momentarily tensed. “Wish I did, but nope.”
“So you don’t remember the spaceship and 18th Century…” Mickey started to ask a question, but Rose pulled hard on the chain attached to his wrist. She shook her head and sent him a cold look. Obviously something had happened that she didn’t want Mickey to talk about. “I mean, you don’t remember me traveling with you at all?”
“No, I don’t remember any of it,” the Doctor replied. “Sounds like it would have been brilliant. Except maybe the part where Mickey came aboard; that sounds a bit rubbish.”
Rose rolled her eyes, and Mickey gave him a glare.
“Right, so do you think that whatever they sprayed you with might have caused this?” Rose asked, raising her left hand, the hand currently attached to the Doctor’s, to brush a strand of hair out of her eyes. The Doctor jerked forward at the tugging on his wrist. His right hand crashed clumsily into Rose’s chest.
Mickey sniggered. “Any excuse to cop a feel, eh, boss? Although I think that ship has sailed.”
The Doctor spluttered and removed his hand, but not before memorizing the feel of her breast beneath his hand. Oh, how he’d like to feel that again. Preferably not on accident and when he and Rose were alone. Things had been heating up between them, as far as he could remember anyway. It seemed that they were closing in on the inevitable. Wouldn’t it be brilliant if they had already crossed that line?
“Alright, Doctor,” Rose said, breaking him from his thoughts. “So this spray could have caused this, yeah?”
“Possibly,” he agreed and beamed proudly at her. That was his Rose, always putting the pieces together.
Rose started walking towards the door, pulling the two men behind her. “It’s a start. Come on and let me do the talking, Doctor. You really don’t want to know what the punishment is for a second offence.”
He opened his mouth to speak but then thought better of it. On these types of planets, punishments could be both painful and humiliating. Instinctively he grabbed Rose’s hand, entwining their fingers. Beside him, Rose stiffened and dropped his hand. Confused, he reached for her again, but she shoved her hand in her pocket.
Public handholding between a mistress and a concubine must be forbidden on this planet, he thought. Still, his fingers itched to hold hers. He fell into step a few paces behind Rose and let her lead them down the corridor to an office.
There was a pretty young woman sitting behind the desk; she was wearing a tight black leather outfit and had her own male cuffed to her wrist. Except that her cuffs were silver, probably meaning that Rose was technically of a higher class.
“Eyes down,” Rose snapped, pulling on the cuffs. “And sit.”
It was normally against his nature to listen to commands but when it was Rose doing the commanding, he felt willing to comply.
“It looks like you have gotten your property under control,” the guard said with a smirk. “They just need a firmer hand. I could show you a technique…”
“They are perfectly under my control now,” Rose said, cutting the woman off. “I like them a little feisty.” Rose ran her fingers through the Doctor’s hair, and he had to bite his lip to stifle a moan.
The guard smirked. “They both do seem to be excellent breeding stock. If you have grown tired of one of them, perhaps we could work out a trade?”
“Tempting,” Rose replied, tugging on the Doctor’s hair. “But I will have to decline; they haven’t yet outlived their usefulness.”
The guard sighed. “Pity, the darker one would have been so much fun.” Mickey chuckled at that, and Rose jerked on his chain and shook her head.
“I was about to be off, but it seems that my alpha has had an adverse reaction to the chemicals you used to subdue him. Experiencing a bit of memory loss and I’d like to test it to make sure it won’t affect him in other areas.”
The other woman’s brow furrowed. “It’s an all-natural solution, made from several plants grown in our arboretum. Perfectly harmless to human males.”
“Ah, but he’s not human,” Rose retorted. “So if I could have a sample to analyze?”
“An alien concubine? How extraordinary.” Her lips twitched. “Had I but known he was alien, you might not have gotten him back.” She reached her uncuffed hand out to touch the Doctor.
Rose grabbed her wrist, inadvertently pulling the Doctor forward. “Are you trying to make an unlawful claim on my property? Trying to do such a thing to someone like me would mean an immediate death sentence and seizure of all of your property.” Tightening her grip on the woman, Rose growled. “Is that what’s happening here?”
The Doctor had to bite his lip to keep the grin off his face. It was incredible how much his Rose taking charge affected him. His affection for his pink and yellow girl was growing by the second.
“No,” the guard stammered, wrenching her arm from Rose’s grip. “Apologizes, I didn’t mean to insinuate…”
“I think that is exactly what you meant.” Rose’s jaw clenched. “But I would be willing to overlook it, if you give me a sample of the spray.”
The woman agreed and a moment later she and her slave left the room to get Rose what she had requested. Once the three of them were alone, Mickey chuckled. “Not gonna lie, babe, that was hot. You being all bossy? I liked it.”
The Doctor felt a wave of anger at Mickey’s comments, hating that the idiot was flirting with his companion. Rose just rolled her eyes instead of flirting back. “I hate it when women like that act like they’re better than me.”
“Quite right,” the Doctor chimed in. “Rose, you are simply the best. I know I’ve told you that before but it still holds true.” He gave her his best grin and expected her to give him her tongue in teeth smile.
She didn’t. In fact, she turned away from him and stared at the wall. Was she uncomfortable because Mickey was here? She never had been before. The Doctor was about to ask her if something was wrong when the guard returned. She pressed the can of spray into Rose’s hand, and the three time travelers started back towards the TARDIS.
Once they were on the outskirts of the city, the Doctor tried to take Rose’s hand again. He felt relief fill him as their fingers entwined. A moment later, Rose looked down at their hands and then back up at him. She shook her head and pulled her hand away, pushing it into her pocket.
Something was definitely off with Rose. The Doctor tried to push his brain to remember the last few months, tried to remember why Rose would be like this. Soon they were back at the TARDIS and the Doctor quickly unlocked the door and the three of hurried inside.
Rose reached over and pressed her thumb onto the cuff attached to both Mickey and the Doctor’s wrists.
“You were brilliant today,” the Doctor said, looking up at Rose. He tried to pull her into a hug but she skittered away.
“Thanks.” She bit her lip and closed her eyes as if she was in deep concentration. A moment later her eyes snapped open. “Oh, wait.” Rummaging in her pocket, she pulled out the spray and handed it over. “This is for you. Go do your science stuff. I’m gonna make some tea. Let me know if you find anything that I need to know.”
Without waiting for him to reply, Rose hurried out of the console room. Mickey chuckled and the Doctor rounded on him, tired of his cavalier attitude. “What is so funny?”
“It’s just that the next few days are gonna be interesting between the two of you.” Mickey laughed again. “At least before you knew what you’d done to upset her.”
“And what’s that’s supposed to mean?” the Doctor demanded.
“That’s between you and the missus, boss. Not that she’s still your missus, Rose may be more of an ex now, for both of us. I don’t get in the middle of your domestics,” Mickey retorted. “Although she seems to be lightening up a bit. It may be your chance to get back in her good graces. I’m surprised it’s taken you this long to woo her back. Shoulda tried for a bit more romance.”
The Doctor spluttered for a moment before finally managing to form coherent words. “Rose and I aren’t like that. At least not that I remember. Besides I thought that you and her were…” He waved a hand around not wanting to say aloud that Rose and Mickey were in fact the couple out of the three of them.
“That was over a long time ago, mate. Not that you ever really took notice before.” Mickey shook his head. “Long before you became this you.” He held up his arm and pointed to the tattooed branding. “Is this permanent, or can you get rid of it? Don’t really need the ex’s name in some alien language tattooed on my arm. It might hurt my game.” Mickey paused. “That’s what this is, right?”
The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Yep. Come on, I got something that’ll take care of that. There might be a slight burning sensation. Weeelll, when I say might, I mean definitely will be, and when I say slight, I mean very, very painful. Oh, and there will be some large pustules, don’t want to pop those. Might cause a massive infection, possibly the loss of a limb and that would seriously affect your ‘game’.”
It was the Doctor’s turn to laugh at the petrified look on Mickey the Idiot’s face.
