Was a Dame even 'fore it was a title...

"I can't believe you said-"

"Well don't repeat it!"

"I wasn't goin' to but honestly. Really. What'd you think would happen?"

"Well..." It dragged out of his mouth like the word was meant to last a minute. A minute at the very least. There was no way he thought it would've resulted in anything different than the situation they were in right now.

Her eyebrows raised in doubt, and her glare met his with a bit of a wide eyed stare of disbelief, "Well what?"

"What?"

Shaking her head she shut her eyes and took in a breath. It was supposed to calm her. It would've calmed her if she hadn't nearly choked on the thick smell that hit her nostrils with that very intake of air.

"God... it's just horrid. It's like the inside of Mickey's old sneakers after sloshing through that swamp on Chevyylle," her nose wrinkled as she tried to not taste what she was smelling, but as the Doctor had pointed out on more than one occasion it was all connected up there, and that meant she was feeling that taste at the back of her throat. Her tongue scraped against the roof of her mouth and her expression made the Doctor nearly laugh.

"Don't laugh. This is your fault. You and that mouth a'yours." Her mouth drew into a tight line as she narrowed her gaze at him.

"Oh... I don't know. Mean this isn't that bad. Well except the smell. Well the smell and that ticking. You do hear the ticking right? Cause otherwise I'd be wondering if it was in my head. Side effect of the smell."

"Yeah. I hear the ticking. I smell the smell and I heard you say it. So really why I'm in here? Still doesn't make sense."

"Guilt by association Rose! You're with me, and look at that they don't really mind that you didn't say it. You didn't stop me from saying it, and well then you're in trouble too. Rapscallion that you are Rose Tyler."

"Rapscallion? You made that up."

He shook his head and grinned at her. Of course the gate lifted and the guards came in. Rose shook her head again in disappointment at the Doctor. Really it was his fault they were in this mess. Always his fault. Well maybe that one time... two times, maybe three tops it was her fault.

"We did not realize... you are free to go."

"What?" Rose exclaimed as she looked at the Doctor. "How'd we go from arrested on sight, or rather on WORD, to free to go?"

"He speaks the native tongue. Words that are paramount to our survival are regarded with the highest respect... and dishonor as well. He spoke of Rapscallion. Highest Priestess of our Lands. She allows her name to be spoken simply to beg the forgive those that have sinned upon us. No one knows her name from public knowledge. Only those that have visited with her are granted that right."

"Serious?"

"I do not understand what you are asking, but you are free to go."

Shaking her head she glanced to the Doctor who was beaming, "See? What'd I tell you. Easy as anything, and I didn't even have to break out the big words!"

Did I ever tell you about the time The Doctor took me to meet Jim Henson? See he's a big Muppets fan, and really I just wanted to see Kermit and maybe give him a hug. Could've been a real nice time. But see it never works out right. TARDIS must have an aversion to Henson or something, cause 1979 never worked quite right either.

So we land and I'm thinking it'll be brill, and we'll see the whole production house or something. Maybe even see him come up with like The Swedish Chef yeah? The door swing open and there's a field. Which I mean sure it's overshot before, not a big deal really. Still the field is pretty flat, and flat usually doesn't exactly mean there's much to hide what else is around. 'Cept there's also a desert off too. Just a weird bit of landscape cause over on the other side is a forest with like maybe a half dozen trees.

It's weird. I'm already thinking it's not time to meet Kermit the Frog.

The Doctor? He's mostly just scratching his head yeah? Making this sort of screwed up face looking up at the sky like he missed a turn somewhere. Like if maybe he just looked hard enough he just might see that left he should'a taken or something.

Anyway that's when I heard it. This monotonous tone just sort of like a driving beat of some sort. It was going 'badger badger badger badger' and really it's not every day you hear that word. Well unless you work at a zoo or you raise them? Who raises badgers anyway?

So it's repeating at me and I'm sort of not thrilled to be looking around neither, but I do it anyway. It's like the field just popped up with like dozens of these badgers! They're standing up on two legs sort of bouncing and saying Badger Badger Badger over and over!

Right so the badgers are there, and the Doctor is sort of looking at them like he hasn't a clue what's going on. Which I'm pretty sure he didn't. It would've been weird enough just with the 'badger badger badger badger' but then from the other side of me I swear the mushroom that was sort of unnaturally large said something.

I mean it. The mushroom said 'mushroom mushroom' which I swear happened. I mean why would I make this up? Trust me you see a Slitheen fit into a skin suit of an obese woman you realize nothing you make up is going to sound weird at all. So when I hear the badger again I realize they all must have this teleportation thing cause it's empty field then they just start popping up, but before I even know what to think that mushroom is all calling again.

It does that like three times and then all of a sudden it's like it changes and they're all going 'snake a snake oh it's a snake' but I mean all I see is the damn badgers. Who again have vanished along with the mushroom.

I look to the Doctor and he's pretty much bobbing his head along, like he's got it stuck in his head. I'm sort of wondering where the snake is so I head toward the desert. I mean the rest of it's all flat anyway. By then it's back to the badger parade with special guest of the mushroom.

Course when the snake part comes I'm ready and sure enough. There it is. And then there it goes. It's like all the creatures have the teleportation thing and we're just sort of stuck in this infinite loop of them repeating over and over again.

Right so I look to the Doctor and I go, "So how'd we end up here? I mean this isn't exactly Muppets and Harry Monster givin' me a hug yeah?"

He looks at me right, and he goes, "Not sure really... maybe I'll call someone up on my Banana Phone! Boop-boo-ba-doo-ba-doop! Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring banana phone Cellular, modular, interactivodular!"

That's about time when I headed back to the TARDIS and waited for him to come back and take us out of there.

Still haven't met Jim Henson though. Met John Hanson. Not the same at all. First President of Congress... yeah... impressive. Does he have a Grover Muppet?

If she could only see angels above her and fears on the floor.
And she needs to discover she wants more and more and more.

The church wasn't like she remembered it, but it was still the same church, still the same building, and still the same odd musty smell that she figured came from the books. The bibles with well worn pages, being flipped and thumbed through with dry skin and wetted fingertips just to get a better grip on the thin velum that the ink was stained to. She knew they weren't meant to be there. Yet again it was one more trip that never was meant to go the way it had. But things had gone back, so really the trip on some level probably never even existed, except for the memory she had of it all... and the story she remembered growing up.

The story was what made her realize that she was exactly where she was supposed to be. In that exact moment, doing that exact thing. It wasn't fate, or destiny it was just what was meant to be. She was meant to watch him, to have that final look into his eyes as he left her... left her once more.

It was a bit like visiting the spot where someone famous had died. Walking around waiting for the guided tour, trying to see if there's a shop to buy some collectible spoon for her mum, or just a postcard to let someone know that they wished they could've been there too.

"Rose!"

"Yeah... comin' just a'bit," her voice carried away from her, echoing in the ceilings back down to her until she could almost feel it surround her. It was funny how a building could have such life to it, and yet all at the same time feel so dead.

He was standing there... right on the spot. Two white Converse All-Stars laced up tight and his glasses on with that furrowed brow expression pacing around. All she could do was stare at the ground though. That spot on the pavement where everything stopped... where she'd saved him once, and then the world unraveled from that very spot. Like a spinning top just going around and around, like the car on the infinite loop. Until it finally settled onto it's side skittering away from it all.

"Here? Rose..."

"Hmmm?" His touch to her arm brought her line of sight back to his, and she could see that he wasn't trying to rush her... just try to figure it out. Her hand went to her hair, threading through fingers until it felt a bit tight at the back of her head, "Yeah... right there. I mean you were here too... kinda."

The Doctor leaned down and did one thing that Rose would never quite get used to him doing as he licked the pavement.

"Oh... really, you ought'a figure out a different way of doin' that... really..." Rose knew the situation wouldn't present itself but now... even if it had she'd never even dream of it now that his tongue had been on the pavement.

Taking her hand out of her hair she shoved them into her jacket pockets, feeling a chill around her for the moment as her head tipped up to the sky. It was surreal to her to think that she'd been there before, watching him go from right at her feet, right where she could've saved him... to somewhere else.

If she could believe in heaven after everything she'd seen... all the horrible things in the universe that shouldn't be really happening, at least not that a God she knew about would allow... but maybe it's all for a reason. Maybe because things are already happening a thousand times a single second, that it's all going to be fine.

"Figure it out?"

The Doctor stood up, resting his hand to her shoulder in comfort mostly, but also to steady himself as he put away the Sonic screwdriver into his jacket pocket, "Just an echo... the event repeated so many times it ended up with a wave... like a ripple and it'll fade out eventually. Come on... other things to find, adventures to have."

His hand was there... she knew it was there, reaching out to pull her back, to bring her into the world that she wanted to be in. Because the world that everyone else had to live in... felt like an echo to her now, and eventually she knew it'd fade out too.

"Murder of crows... how awfully dreadful," Rose comments as she wanders along the street. Head tipped up and jaw slightly agape staring at all of them just perched on the wires.

"Oh... Rose Neopagans thought they were Psychic! Or go by the European legends that they are the Carriers of Death and Doom... but really they're just protectors!"

"Of what? They're... quite ominous looking, sort of give me the chills a bit." Rose is trying not to notice how many of them there are, because the numbers are increasing by the minute, but The Doctor doesn't even seem to notice. He's still going on about some signal or noise pattern he picked up. The noise that brought them to this time and this place, and Rose is utterly convinced that they know. She's starting to subscribe to that NeoPagan belief a bit because it's like they know that they don't belong here, but he's just rushing ahead of her.

"It's not right... so many of them yeah?"

The Doctor pauses and turns to look at Rose, suddenly aware of just how startled the birds are making her. With a scratch at the back of his head for a moment he glances up to the phone wires along the street, "Oh... well that's beautiful!"

"Beautiful? They're crows! And they've been adding to their numbers since we started down this lane."

"Have they now?"

Rose stopped in her tracks, fists at her side as she glared at The Doctor, "Are you mad? You haven't been hearing them? They've been cawing up a bloody storm!"

"What?!"

"Oh... yeah you're real smart," chided Rose as she rolled her eyes a bit at him. He just grinned back at her trying to coax her the rest of the way. Shaking her head in a bit of dismay she picked up her step and met up with The Doctor keeping her stride close to his as he led them along the rest of the walk.

"So what is it then? This signal that you've picked up out here?"

"Ohhh, just this chatter. Chitter really. No... Chatter. Interesting bit of noise, with a slight.. ticking. I mean it's like a clicking. No... tapping?"

"Peckin' cause... well..." Rose glanced up ahead of them, not even noting that The Doctor had paused scratching his head while trying to sort out just what sort of noise he was hearing. Still rambling along Rose tugged on one trenchcoat sleeve, "Peckin' I'd say cause... of that."

"Ooooh... well now that is beautiful. A big beautiful Black Bird... and look at you! You're just tapping away at that aren't you!"

"You know what it is then?"

"Noooo... but it'll be fun trying to figure it out!"

"Yeah... just watch out for droppin's yeah?"