Some Go Mad

The tip of Rose's shoe tapped repeatedly against the dark blue carpet outside of Mr. Hammond's office. She was hunched over with her elbows on her thighs, thumb nails stuck between her teeth; another nervous habit she'd acquired over the years. The skin of her calf showed through the rip in her skirt and she prayed that no one would notice.

After being almost 20 minutes late to the interview, she'd had to wait until all of the other morning interviews that were after her scheduled one to be able to go. She'd been waiting for an hour-and-a-half, and Mr. Hammond had left for his lunch ten minutes previously. She was hoping that she wouldn't have to wait much longer. The growling coming from her stomach was growing louder by the minute.

"Ms. Jackson?"

Rose looked up from the floor. The middle-aged woman working the front desk, the woman she'd be replacing if she got the job, was smiling at her from across the room. She pulled her thumbs away from her mouth. "Yes?"

"You can go into Mr. Hammond's office now."

"Alright, thank you," Rose said, standing up. She straightened her top and skirt, then grabbed the rarely-used purse from beside her chair. She took a deep breath, attempting to calm herself, walked quickly forward, and pushed through the large oak doors to the main office.

And she stopped dead in her tracks.

The door swung shut behind her and a faint click echoed in the room. Her mouth dropped open in an 'o'. Standing beside the chair behind the desk was a man wearing a light blue dress shirt and brown dress pants, clothes far too laid-back for the office in which he worked. His wavy blonde hair was a mess on his head and, though he was on the other side of the room, Rose could see that his eyes were a cheerful light brown.

"How did you do that?" Her voice rang sharp in the quiet room.

The man's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Sorry?"

"I... I would have seen you if you had come in here. There's only one entrance. How did you get here?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I don't know what you're talking about. I've been here since six-thirty this morning."

"And your eyes-"

"My eyes?" He laughing, seemingly amused at what he thought was Rose mistaking him for someone else. "Why don't you sit down and-"

"No!" Rose persisted, all traces of the shyness that had overcome her when she'd seen the man earlier replaced by an intense stubbornness and need to know what was going on. "You were just outside two hours ago on the street. I ran into you! You were wearing different clothes and your eyes were...darker. Assuming your statement about being in here all morning is true, you must have a brother or something."

A small, polite smile graced his handsome face. "What's your name?" he asked, ignoring her words and leaning over Mr. Hammond's desk to leaf through a pile of what Rose could only guess were applications.

"Rose," she replied, voice more disappointed than she knew it should have been. "Rose Jackson."

His fingers stopped moving for a moment. He lifted his gaze to look at the brunette girl in front of him. His expression was contemplative; his eyes scanned her face and she stared right back at him.

Rose could see a vast eternity in his eyes, a knowledge going on forever and that had been masked that morning by the raw emotions that had filled him. Her hand reached into the purse on her hip, fingers clenching tightly for a moment around the small bottle she'd been given. She could read clearly what his expression was saying. How are you significant to me? She felt it just as he did; there was just something about him...

"Ah, Mr. Smith," a loud, deep voice boomed from directly behind Rose, causing her to jump.

She took a step to the side, allowing Mr. Hammond to walk into his office. Her eyes followed him as he took his place behind the desk.

Mr. Hammond looked up at the man he'd dubbed Mr. Smith. "Who have we got here?"

Rose glanced between her possible future employer and the man she somehow knew wouldn't be leaving her life anytime soon and wondered to herself if her day could get any stranger.

---

"Oh, please, Rosy? Just one more! Please?"

Rose laughed at the very eager and hopeful look on her younger brother's face, but closed the small book that was in her lap. "No, Matty. Mum would already be angry if she knew I let you stay up this late."

The small boy crossed his arms over the chest of his cowboy pajamas. His big brown eyes stared up at his sister sadly.

However, this routine was usual for Rose. Every night before he had to go to bed, she'd read a story to him. Just one, but he always tried to get her to read him one or two more. And no matter how hard he tried, she would not give in to Matty. She loved him to death, being almost more of a mother to him than their own mother, who had been out of town quite a bit lately for work related issues, but she had rules that had to be followed.

"When's Mum coming home?"

Rose reached out and ran the fingers of her right hand through his soft hair. "She'll be home tomorrow at dinner time."

"Are we having a great big dinner?"

She smiled. "Of course."

"And is Mum staying home for awhile this time?"

Rose leaned forward and kissed her brother's forehead, a knowing look on her face. "I think she's going to be staying home for good now." She set the book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, down on Matty's night table, standing up from the old rocker she'd moved from the corner of the room. She pushed the chair back to where it was supposed to be then went to sit on his bed beside him. Her arms wound around his small body and he wrapped his around hers in return.

"I love you, Rosy," he whispered.

She kissed the side of his head. "I love you more."

She left his room, walking down the hallway to lean in to her other brothers' rooms as well to tell them goodnight. She passed her own room and stuck her head into her father's study.

"Dad?"

Marshall Jackson's eyes moved from the book he was reading to his daughter's face. "Hello, Rose."

"I'm going to sleep," she said.

He smiled at her, opening his arms wide for a hug. She thought to herself for a moment that she was really going to miss being able to hug him before bed when she moved out, then took a great step across the room and was enveloped in her dad's arms. "I love you, sweet pea."

She leaned up to kiss his cheek. "I love you too, Dad."

"I'll see you in the morning before I leave for work?" he asked, releasing her from his grip.

"Always."

She turned on her heel and left the room, closing the door behind her. She walked the two feet to her own room and pushed her own door open. At the sight before her, a scream built up in her throat. A hand was thrust over her mouth before it could be released though.

A great, blue Police Box, like the ones from the 60's, was sat in the middle of her bedroom. Her eyes grew wide and it was then that she realized who the person was that had covered her mouth. The man from the street; the temp worker from Mr. Hammond's office. She pried the hand from her face and took a step back.

"Who are you? And why are you in my bedroom?"

"I'm the Doctor! But this is no time for questions, Rose. You need to come with me." The man held his hand out for her as he stood in the entry to the Police Box.

"Like hell I do!"

The man made an exasperated noise before grasping hold of her hand and yanking her inside the box. "You haven't really got a choice."

Rose's eyes wandered all around the huge room inside of the box. It was bigger on the inside. It was impossible, completely and utterly impossible and yet there it was. Right in front of her. What was it the man had asked her earlier? If she believed in the extraordinary. Well, she hadn't then but now that something so fantastic had been shoved right in front of her face, how could she not?

"It's bigger," she said slowly, "on the inside."

The man nodded from his place at the center console, which looked to be filled with switches and knobs and screens and things that Rose thought she would never be able to understand even if she tried. "Yeah!"

She looked at the wires hanging from the ceiling, the beams holding the place up, the control panel, the stairs at the back of the room that seemed to lead to a hallway that, she thought, could only lead to even more rooms. "But how is this possible?" The whole place began to shake the moment the words left her mouth a whirling, whooshing, wheezing noise filled the place. Rose realized that they were moving and changed her question, no longer caring how the box could be bigger on the inside. "How did you get in my house without me hearing that?"

He smiled at her. "An old friend of mine once told me: 'If you want to be sneaky, you must first be cleverer than you already are.'" The rest of his words were lost in the sounds of the machine as he lowered his voice, but Rose thought she heard something along the lines of "and don't leave the brakes on."

"I have a family. You can't just take me from my home without any explanation. They'll start to worry." Even to her own ears, Rose could hear how frantic her voice sounded.

"Oh, Rose. I wish I could explain it all to you at this very moment," he said, voice sincere as it had been when she'd first ran into him. "But, I'm sorry. I can't. Because right now, I need your help."