#xocoatl

We left off in the last chapter with the Doctor and Jimmy’s confrontation in front of Donna’s chocolate shop. Or rather, the beginnings of it. Rose is still lying unconscious upstairs meanwhile.

Martha ran soft, clinical hands over Rose to assess the extent of her injuries. She had a rib that Martha suspected was cracked and bruising everywhere, but she was relatively lucky. Nearly everything was a surface injury.

"She's all right. She'll ache for weeks, and that rib'll need to be strapped, but she's fine for now. No head injury, so she can even still sleep."

It’s interesting how easily a friendship can be forged by caring about the same person. Donna and Martha both have big hearts, true, but they bond immediately over their like for Rose. Well, that and being outcasts. Even though Donna’s the daughter of the Countess, she does not belong in Gallifrey at all. What Rose really needs courage for is to be an outcast too.

Well, to be herself, first and foremost, but that makes her an outcast in the sleepy little town of Gallifrey. It is only fitting that help comes from the outside too - the Doctor casts his no intervention policy aside in order to help her, which is enough to give her the courage to finally be herself.

Rose was shaking like a leaf. "He was mad, Martha. He thought… he always thinks.. but it was the Doctor this time and it made him crazy. He choked me. I couldn't do anything… I couldn't make him stop… I thought he'd kill me this time and there wasn't anything I could do. There wasn't anything I wanted to do."

"Oh Rose," Martha said, tears pouring down her face. She wrapped her arms around her friend and allowed her to shake and stammer in her arms. "Hush now," she murmured, rubbing her back like a child. "You're all right. It's all right. I promise."

It is still heart-breaking to watch Rose so scared, so fragile, at the snapping point and not believing there is any way out. It’ll take a lot of convincing on her new-found friends’ part to show her that there is indeed a way to freedom. As it is, she is too broken to believe she could ever get out. At least not without dying first. Every time I think I can’t hate Jimmy Stone more, it turns out I can…

Donna smiled and stroked her hands down the sides of Rose's face. "Good," she said, and stood. "My brother and some of his pals are outside, making sure that Jimmy won't come bother us."

"And tomorrow?" Rose asked. "I can't ask you to put yourself in danger."

"Men like Jimmy? They're cowards," Martha said. "They won't come here in the light of day, they'll only come in the night like rats."

Rose is very different throughout the whole story from what we are used to seeing on screen or reading in canon-verse fics. She was abused, she was treated as a possession, treated like she didn’t matter unless she had some use to others. As a result she is a shadow of her real self in the beginning, until she is allowed to shake off the doubts. But in moments like these, we can really see her spirit shining through - Rose Tyler, always considering the wellbeing of others, even when she is in pain and needs help herself.

The mutinous mutterings of the men from the pub were silenced by the the arrival of the Countess Noble and Father Williams in their midst. Both had heard the commotion in the square and rushed out to lend assistance separately, only to find themselves arriving together.

"What's going on here?" Rory called out, raising his voice as though from the lectern in the church.

When I started reading this story I didn’t know anything about Rory Williams other than what I have read here. Now, having watched all of his episodes, he is both a familiar face when he appears in the story and a complete stranger. Making Rory a priest is an interesting decision, one that I personally would never have thought of in a million years. It fits him in the context of the fic very well and gives him a degree of authority that I would not normally associate with him. Even though he often cannot exercise that authority well or fully, it is a title that’s both limiting and represents a station of power in the small town of Gallifrey. I have been fascinated by Rory’s characterisation in the story from the beginning and I continue to be intrigued by it in the best possible way.

From the back of the group stepped forward the drunkest and most belligerent of the lot. The man who was, naturally, the leader for all of that. Jimmy Stone.

"We're here to get my wife. Lord says she's mine, and I intend to have her," he slurred. "She run off on me like some slut with some big-eared bastard and now she's hiding here with your," and here he pointed an unsteady finger at the countess, "cunt of a daughter."

All I’m saying at this point is: I’m really glad about what’s in store for Jimmy later in the fic.

Chris goes on to intimidate Jimmy a bit more (who does not get the hint), while thanks to the Countess the whole town becomes aware that the man standing guard in front of the chocolate shop is her son. It is Donna who at last convinces the onlookers to go home and leave them in peace.

"That's enough, Chris."

Everyone looked up to find Donna standing in the doorway, arms crossed, giving everyone a pointed glare.

"I don't know if you've all noticed, but it's late, and I should be abed as should all of you. The shop is closed. Go home, all of you."

Sylvia and Rory both get sent home as well, and interestingly, everyone listens to Donna. I’m not surprised really; if she’d tell me to go home I probably wouldn’t argue either. Chris and the crew he brought remain to guard her home and Rose inside it.

- by @thereisnothingwrongwithbeingmad