You'd Have To Get a Mortgage! – Chapter I

Rose looked out to the panorama in front of her. Dark solid buildings rose up and spread to the furthest reaches of the horizon. In the middle of the megopolis was a white tower, brilliantly catching the rays of light that were otherwise absorbed by the surrounding blackness. The place hum with movement as thousands of cars flew through the streets that were powerfully illuminated by what looked like flood lamps, suspended on the side of every building.

"New Klomtown." Zachary, the interim captain, gave a deep breath and grinned as he looked out before him. "Home sweet home!" Zachary looked over to Rose, who in turn looked over to the Doctor.

She could tell the Doctor didn't feel the same way. He stood rigid, as if the world was falling around him, with a curious expression on his face, kind of like he had eaten something hideously disgusting, but was desperately trying to hide that fact. If someone else had seen him they would have mistaken it for condescension, but Rose knew better. She put out her hand and wrapped it in with the Doctor's, giving it a meaningful squeeze. "I'm right here with you." Rose smiled at him.

The Doctor gave a smile back. If there was a silver lining here, it was that he and Rose could finally stay together, without the overhanging dread of something happening to her.

"Ok then," Zachary continued. "Doctor, if you want to come with me, I'll take you to Torchwood with me and Ida. We've got to deliver this energy to the chairman and while I'm there, I'll suggest they hire you. God knows they'll need someone with your brains."

"And I'll help Rose look for a place." Scooty interjected. "There's always something going around Terrence Flat."

Rose looked a bit confused. "Hold on, we don't have any money."

"That won't be a problem." Danny shrugged. "Just get a credit card."

"But like won't that require information and stuff?"

"What do you mean?" Scooty looked baffled. "There's a vendor on every street."

Rose raised an eyebrow as Zachary ran out to traffic and stopped what looked like a taxi. The flying vehicle screeched to a halt and Ida and Zachary jumped in, calling out to the Doctor to follow. With a look that distinctly said help me, the Doctor looked back to Rose then got into the car.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Rose walked into the front room of her new apartment and looked at the floor. Carpet. She grinned at the irony then walked into the kitchen and stared in the metallic fridge to see what sort of food Danny had bought her. Luckily, he had got alcohol. Lots of alcohol, because in all honesty, a stiff drink was all she really wanted right now. Well, nearly all she wanted.

She heard the lock on the door open.

"Honey, I'm…. oh. Carpets."

Rose popped her head out from the kitchen to see the Doctor standing in the doorway, staring at the cream and fluffy floor. "Hello stranger! Got a job?"

"It seems so." The Doctor edged in and closed the door behind him. "Never understood the whole Japanese-businessmen-suicide thing before, but now I think I'm beginning to sympathise."

The Doctor took off his coat and threw it onto one of the sofas. Shoving his hands in his slim pant pockets he then collapsed onto the sofa and stuck his feet on top of the plastic coffee table.

"So!" Rose clasped her hands together. "Want a drink?"

"What is there?" The Doctor looked up.

"Well, let's see." Rose opened the fridge again and looked through the myriad of bottles. "There's something called Shufflemalt."

"Oo. Dangerous stuff. Woke up the morning after in custody for trying to do the Charleston with Sir Lady of Clientele."

"Ok then," Rose shuffled the bottle of Shufflemalt aside, trying to block out images of the Doctor dancing, which would remind her of something else… "There's Ponk."

"Bingo!" The Doctor lit up.

Rose walked back into the front room and chucked a bottle of the alcoholic liquid to the Doctor then sat down beside him. "So, what do you do for a living?"

"I," The Doctor exclaimed after a having a swig then handing the bottle over to Rose. "am in charge of Energy Efficiency and Standards."

"Wow." Rose rolled her eyes. "Kill me now."

He took the bottle out of Rose's hand and took another swig. "Turns out this Torchwood place is a kind of energy Business Empire. It's that white building in the middle of the city. Ridiculously rich, and of course powerful, which makes sense in this era; where energy is quite sparse and very influential."

"Kind of like the oil-problems back home."

"Kind of like, but thousands of times bigger. No wonder they had such a drastic mission to find energy as that with the black hole. This place needs it."

"Well it's not like they're trying to conserve energy though; I mean, look at this place. Even the street lights look like they're in full blast."

"Human beings. You never learn."

"Hey!" Rose elbowed him in the side playfully. The Doctor lit up with a grin, the happiest she'd seen him in a while. His brown eyes caught hers, and for a second they fixed on each other, the Doctor's insides beginning to tighten as he moved a centimetre towards her.

"Right!" He suddenly pulled away, embarrassed, leaving Rose to quickly look away and play with the bottle of Ponk. "We should ah, go to bed. Not together, I mean, but I mean I should go to sleep, and so should you…If you want, that is." The Doctor got up from the sofa and headed down the corridor.

"Doctor, there's just one problem!" Rose called out to the Doctor quickly.

He appeared in the front room again, hands in pockets. "There's only one bed."

"It was the only place available. Sorry." Rose, in fact, had lied. There was another place across the road with two bedrooms, but she knew this was too good a chance to let slide.

"That's fine." The Doctor nodded. "You have the bed, I can take the sofa."

"What?" Rose exclaimed, a bit to frantically, she thought. She tried to contain herself. "I can't do that to you, I mean, you're the one with the big job. You need a good night's sleep."

"I'm a Timelord." The Doctor shrugged pompously. "A good night's sleep is for lesser beings."

"Thanks." Rose said sarcastically. Putting the bottle of Ponk on the coffee table, Rose got up from the sofa and walked over to the corridor. "So I'll ah, see you in the morning then."

"Yup." The Doctor remained standing, hands in pockets.

"I'll head off to bed then. Night."

"Night."

Rose turned around and opened the door to her room, but she could swear she saw the Doctor, in the back of her eye, take a step towards her, then quickly stop and turn back around.

She may have been stuck on some futuristic earth, with no TARDIS and the prospect of once again living a normal life, but she now had the Doctor exactly where she wanted him.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

NB: Ok, so – explaining. Well, yesterday I watched Impossible Planet/Satan Pit (great episodes, may I just say) and the thought came, what if they never found the TARDIS? What if it wasn't the Devil there? What if Rose and the Doctor really did have to get a mortgage? Hence; this fic. Cause I really felt like writing a Doctor Who fic, and my other one, "Best Laid Schemes" didn't seem to be going anywhere, seeing as how it was a Rose Returns fic, and Rose had already returned in the real series. Therefore: backstep! And all that 10/Rose goodness!! So, pop a line and Review, great to hear if you've got any ideas, and yeah, just review! Because reviews save a kittens life, make my world go round and stop me from reading spoiler spoilers for the season finale (which is kind of pointless because I think I may have been spoiled-out already. I'm like some sort of giant Taint Monster. Ooo…that could be a good idea…) Anywho, review!!