Doctor Who_ The Stone Rose - Jacqueline Rayner [40]
‘He’s a bit upset right now,’ the Doctor pointed out.
The man was unmoved. ‘I’m sorry, sir, but I cannot make an exception.’
The Doctor stepped closer and prodded him. ‘Sorry, just checking if you were really human. Because a real human would see just how upset my… friend is and show a bit of compassion.’
The guard ignored the Doctor’s anger. Probably used to that sort of thing, even in as refined a place as a museum. He spoke so reasonably that the Doctor, not in the best of moods just at the moment, felt his ire rise even higher. ‘We have a duty to protect these items. They wouldn’t have lasted for countless generations if everyone had been allowed to go around sitting on them, would they?’
The Doctor was about to launch into a number of counter‐arguments involving past uses of stone works – as well as uses that had just come to him and in which the guard could possibly take part – all of which would probably have had the man doubting his sanity, when Mickey pushed himself to his feet. He shoved his face towards that of the security guard.
‘I don’t care about your stupid statues or your stupid duty!’ he shouted.
Everyone else in the room turned to stare. One tourist took a photo.
‘She’s dead! Don’t you understand? She’s dead! I’ve been coming here every day, every single stupid day, just to feel I was close to her – to keep me going until I saw her again. But I didn’t know… now I’m not going to see her again, not ever!’
‘I’m sorry, sir, but –’
The Doctor stepped in before the situation got any worse. ‘As I told you, he’s a bit upset right now,’ he said harshly, and took Mickey by the arm.
Silent tears still coursed down Mickey’s cheeks as the Doctor led him out of the room and up the stairs; he looked dazed and angry.
The Doctor sat him down at a table in the Great Court and went off to a nearby counter. He returned with two plastic cups of blackcurrant cordial and placed one in front of Mickey, sticking a straw in the top.
They sat silently for a few minutes. Neither one of them was really there any more; they were in the past, with Rose. Talking to her. Laughing with her. Just looking at her face.
‘She was always too good for me,’ Mickey said suddenly. ‘Didn’t deserve her, I didn’t. There was this time I had the flu – she looked after me, every day. I felt like I wanted to die, then she’d hold my hand and I’d remember how good life could be.’ He almost smiled. ‘I thought I was the luckiest man alive to get her. We were only kids, but I knew she was special. Kept thinking she’d leave me. And she did, once. Came back, though. Thought she was on the rebound, that she’d see sense after a week or two. But she didn’t. Never thought I’d hang on to her a second time. Knew there was something better out there and she’d realise it in the end. I just had to make the most of every day I got. I mean, I was angry when she went off with you. Angry with you, but angry with her too, angry that she’d seen through me at last. Realised I was a loser and she was a winner. But I didn’t mind, not in the end. Because she deserved more than me. She deserved someone who could give her the whole universe.’ The sorrow in his voice turned to anger. ‘But you got her killed.’
‘I know,’ said the Doctor, and it was as if he hated himself.
‘You got her killed and I’ll never see her again! She thought she wanted danger and excitement – but you could have stopped her! She wasn’t a – a Time Lord, she was just an ordinary girl and you got her killed.’
‘Rose wasn’t “ordinary”,’ said the Doctor. He stopped sounding angry at himself, directed it at Mickey instead. ‘What was I supposed to do? Wrap her in cotton wool? Tell her, “Here, I could give you the universe, but I’m not going to in case you get hurt? There’s all this stuff out there, all these planets, all these wonders, but I want you to stay at home and work in a shop?”
Mickey stood up and yelled, ‘You should have taken better care of her!’
The Doctor shouted back, ‘I know!’
Mickey sat back down. ‘You should’ve,’ he repeated quietly. He suddenly shivered. ‘How’m I gonna