Rose often crept away to the library when she was supposed to be sleeping. The shelves upon shelves of books just seemed to be calling her, and she would stay there, curled up with a story in one of the numerous big armchairs that adorned the huge room until she fell asleep. She had never been extremely fond of books when she was in school, but they were different to her now. Maybe that had something to do with the Doctor, who loved books, or the TARDIS's translation and language program that got inside of her head and made words in every language make sense. But in any case, she loved the library. Besides the console room, with its lovely coral pillars and blue round things on the walls, it was her favorite room on the TARDIS.
Tonight was no exception to the habit. As soon as the Doctor thought she had gone to her room to go to sleep, she tiptoed away to find the library. It always seemed to be in a different place, but it was never too difficult to find. This time, for instance, the dramatic, dark, beautifully-carved, wooden double doors were only just around one corner and down the corridor a-ways. Rose pushed the doors open as quietly as she could. She had no idea if the Doctor ever slept, and if he did, where his bedroom was, but she didn't want to wake him. Also, this was something she liked to keep to herself: a little secret between her and the TARDIS.
She slipped along the ceiling-high shelves, trailing her hand along the spines of the books, wondering if the Doctor had read them all and scanning the titles. She hardly recognized any of them; so many were alien, or from the future. Those were always so interesting, especially the ones from alien civilizations. She loved seeing the things that they told about in person, but sometimes it was nice not to be in any danger when observing the variety of life in the universe. However, she was in the mood for something more familiar tonight. Something Earth-like, something maybe she had read before. Her eyes caught a title she was very familiar with.
Peter Pan, it read, By JM Barrie. Now there was a book she loved. She pulled it off the shelf gently. It was an edition she didn't recognize. It was hard-bound with no dust jacket, and had golden lettering and outlined sketch of an island, rising out of the sea, set against a deep grey-blue cover. Rose found a seat, complete with a folded blanket lying on top of the back, extra pillows, and a footrest. She made a nest for herself with the pillows, curled up underneath the blanket, and began to read in the safety and comfort of the much-too-large reading chair.
After spending over an hour losing herself with Wendy and Peter in Neverland, Rose found herself drifting to sleep. The TARDIS seemed to sense this, like she always did, and the lights dimmed slowly until she couldn't read anymore and her eyes were closing by themselves. She placed her face onto the open pages on the book (the best pillow in the world, she thought drowsily) and promptly fell asleep.
Rose sighed softly as she awoke. She blinked open her eyes, the lights automatically coming on. She sat up and tossed her blanket off. As she placed her bare feet onto the wooden library floor, someone spoke to her from behind a nearby shelf.
"Interesting thing about the cover of that book," the Doctor said, walking around towards her. Rose jumped slightly, startled. She hadn't thought that he knew about her habit of coming to the library at night.
"What're you doing here?" Rose snapped accusingly.
His Northern voice didn't sound at all annoyed. "It's sort of my home. The TARDIS, that is. I don't live in the library, but neither do you." He held his hand out. "Can I see the book?"
Rose, though still irked that he was there at all, picked the book up from the chair and handed it to him. He nodded his thanks and pointed to the sketch of Neverland, the golden island on the cover. "This isn't a picture of the island."
Now Rose was curious. "Well, wot's it a drawing of, then?"
The Doctor tucked the book into his leather coat. "Do you want to see it?" he said, without answering her question.
"Yeah," Rose said, excitement rising up inside her.
The Doctor reached out his hand. Rose took it. He led her out of the library and along the corridors until they reached the console room. He had to let go of her hand so he could pilot, but when they had landed somewhere, he took it again. "Come with me."
The TARDIS door creaked open softly as the Doctor pulled on it gently. Rose nudged forward, eager to step out, but the Doctor grasped her shoulders. "No," he whispered. "Just look."
Rose carefully pulled the door open the rest of the way. She gasped, stunned. They were in space still, nothing solid outside of their ship. In the distance glittered a perfect copy of the island on the cover of the book. It was a galaxy; each twinkling pinprick contributing to the image was a single golden star. It looked as if Tinker Bell herself had flown across the dark sky and thrown a handful of pixie dust to alight together and make something beautiful.
"The Neverland Galaxy," the Doctor explained. "It's a double meaning, see. The first is that it looks like that mythical island, of course. But the second is that those stars are so young, they don't have any planets, so nowhere to make planet-fall. The galaxy's never been landed inside of. From its birth to its death, no one had ever been to any of its stars. The chemical composition makes the stars burn gold. They're called 'fairy dust' stars. Or, as some people like to call them, 'Faith and Trust' stars."
"Faith and Trust stars," Rose repeated, unable to take her eyes off the sight. "So, Doctor, where should we go next?"
"Oh," he replied slowly. "I've an idea."
Rose grinned, closing the door and turning back around, pulling the Doctor back into the main console room with her. "Second to the right…" she began.
"And straight on 'til morning!" the Doctor finished.
Did you like it? I hope so. This is the second of a series in which I write a one-shot for each Doctor and companion pair (or trio, or quartet) in New Who, as well as one for each Doctor alone (again, just in New Who. Someday I'll do them for Classic, but I'm still working on watching them, and I'm only on the First Doctor still). The first of the series is called "The Red Bicycle", it's Nine alone (though Rose and Jackie managed to worm their way in, too). Please review and tell me what you thought! Peter Pan is an amazing book; if you haven't read it, go-do that. Stop reading this, and go read that. Thanks!