AN: For some reason, I like torturing myself with really angsty post-GITF fanfiction. This time, however, it alludes to the time Rose spent travelling with the Doctor, but this is a healing/bonding moment between her and TenToo. Not fluffy in the slightest, except towards the end.
Rose knew that the Doctor wasn't in their flat as soon as she walked in the door. The lights were off and the telly was on, something that never would have happened if the Doctor was in. He complained about being made to watch telly for extended periods of time now, and usually whenever she got home from Torchwood, he had all of the lights blazing, sounds of tools tinkering from the office across the flat.
Something had been coming between the two of them lately, and Rose wasn't sure what it was. The thought that it was domesticity made her hurt, because she would have rather the Doctor share he was uncomfortable with her instead of bottling it to himself. Just when she thought they were making progress, he dragged them back five steps acting like his full Time Lord self.
Rose sighed and slipped off her heels for the day, stopping by the kitchen for a snack while she waited for the Doctor to return. She knew he would be back, the question was when? She slipped her mobile out of her pocket and flicked through her contacts until she saw Doctor.
Where are you? she sent, mashing the home button down to make her forget her worry and frustration that he didn't bother to leave a note or a text for her to come home to. She munched on her apple as she waited, rolling her aching shoulders up and down.
Her phone pinged! and Rose quickly unlocked it to read her text. Her heart sank when she saw it was only Jake. She opened the message regardless to read it, and what she saw made her heart stop.
Did you know the Doctor was down at the pub? it read, Didn't know he fancied a pint!
He doesn't, she thought moodily. She quickly thought about what she would reply and typed back quickly.
Tell him to come home.
Rose stood up quickly and threw her apple into the bin with a satisfying crash. Git couldn't even bother to tell her he went down to the pub? Maybe he went there to meet a woman?
She shook that thought out of her head before it even brought itself to fruition. This was the Doctor they were talking about, the most emotionally and sexually unavailable man...oh. Her traitorous mind brought around Madame de Pompadour.
By the time the flat door opened about twenty minutes later, Rose Tyler was practically seething.
"Where the hell have you been?" she asked.
"Rose," he began, before pausing for several minutes. She had the sinking feeling this meant he was well and truly sloshed. "Was at th-the pub, though' Jake told y-y-ya that?"
A particularly nasty image of the Doctor stumbling into the ship she and Mickey had been almost killed as sloshed as this made her heart stop.
"Are you mad?" she asked.
"Are you angry?" he retorted.
"Yes!" she exclaimed.
He blinked at that. "Oh. Why?"
"Why do you think?" she asked in exasperation, waving her hands at his stumbling form.
"'Cause of th-the drunk thing...ie?" he asked, confusedly.
"Because of the everything!" she exclaimed in a fit of anger.
This stunned him into complete silence. Rose sighed.
"I'm sorry, Doctor. This wasn't how I meant for it to come out."
He looked instantly sobered. "Meant for what to come out?"
"There's somethin' that's comin' in between us, and don't pretend you can't feel it, too. The tension is so bloody thick, you could cut it with a knife."
A look of hurt flashed across his features. "What are you trying to say?"
"Nothin'." She paused. "Well, I just wish you'd talk to me, Doctor. Instead of keepin' yourself locked away in that bloody tool shed and ignorin' me any time you're around me for more than a few minutes. You can't pretend you have no idea what I'm talkin' about, you went out and got pissed at the pub, and the last time you drank was with Madame," she spat out, without meaning to.
"Rose," he said softly. "I had no idea that you were still upset over that."
She sniffled. Great, just what I need, she thought angrily, let him see me cry. "Well, we never talked about it, did we? We just went whiskin' off through time and space on another adventure."
"I'm sorry," the Doctor apologized. "If I would have-"
"It's okay," she said, interrupting him. "It's my fault, too. I should have pressed it." She bit her lip. "Were you with some other girl?" she asked in a rush, afraid to hear his answer.
"Wha- Rose, why on Earth would you think I was out getting sloshed with some other girl?" he asked. "Especially out in plain view of Jake Simmonds, who happens to be our partner, and your best friend?"
"I dunno," she mumbled. "Just somethin' that's been botherin' me. I just wish you'd tell me what the matter was."
He chuckled humorlessly. "You really don't want to know, Rose."
"If I didn't, I wouldn't ask," she pointed out.
"I don't think I'm good enough for you, Rose!" he yelled. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"
She flinched at the tone in his voice and he sighed.
"Sorry. It's true, though. The Doctor left us a piece of the TARDIS so I could grow one, and I can't bloody figure out how to get it to start growing. I keep working it out every single day, but every time I feel closer, something goes and bloody distracts me, and I lose the train of thought I've been working on. What use am I, Rose Tyler, if I can't take you to the stars? Then, you'd be even more focused on-"
"On what?" she asked softly, taking a few steps towards him.
"On the differences," he whispered hoarsely, like he was afraid of saying the words out loud.
"We're a bloody mess," she said amusedly, placing a hand on his arm. "Both of us worryin' that we're not good for the other."
"Rose Tyler," he growled. "I don't want you to ever think that about yourself."
"Can you blame me?" Rose shrugged. "You didn't make it obvious when we were travelin' together that I was."
His eyebrows knitted together. "I didn't?"
She wasn't surprised at the genuine look of confusion on his face. "No. Usually, when a bloke wants a girl to be his, he tells her, for one. For another thing, he doesn't rub his previous girls in her face, or flounce off with someone he can't help tellin' said girl how brilliant the other is, and pretty, and polished, and all the other things the girl isn't."
The Doctor's arms close around her waist at that. "Rose, I never wanted you to feel that way. It was just...easier, I suppose, to never define what we were. I was afraid when I did, that you would be ripped apart from me again. The universe was always cruel to us. But never doubt, for one second, that you are insignificant to me. You're the most important person that has ever existed in all of time and space. You saved me, Rose Tyler. I'm sorry if I ever, ever made you feel like you were less than."
Her mouth quirked up into a grin. "Yeah?"
"Yeah," he affirmed, resting his forehead against hers.
She closed the remaining distance between them by placing her lips hesitantly against his. She was shocked when he pressed his more firmly against hers. They hadn't kissed since Bad Wolf Bay, and he certainly kissed her back like he was painfully aware of this fact.
His hands pushed through her hair roughly, pressing her firmly against him and his tongue darted out to get lost in the fray. She eagerly reciporcated his actions, any chance to stroke his impossibly soft hair.
When he pulled back, they were both panting roughly, and he cocked his head in question, clearly wanting to know what she thought.
"That was…" she breathed, not quite sure how to accurately describe the way he had made her heart race.
"I know," he said simply, closing the distance between them once more, and Rose hummed contently.
She knew, that even if the TARDIS didn't grow in this lifetime, she would still be just fine living the slow path with her Doctor.