DISCLAIMER: I do not own Doctor Who. But if anyone out there's interested in selling...
Just as a point of interest, this story is already finished and will be updated daily (one chapter per day) unless popular opinion demands I do otherwise. So have a seat, grab a snack, and allons-y!
"Oi, could you lend us a hand here?" Rose asked impatiently.
"Sorry?" replied the Doctor, clearly just coming out of a daydream.
"I said, could you lend me a hand with the dishes?" she answered slowly, as if talking to a child. "You can wash them and I'll put 'em away, yeah?"
He nodded absently in reply, and wandered over to the sink where Rose was standing. Slowly, the Doctor picked up the rag and began scrubbing the dirty plates, still staring off into space.
"Doctor, what's up with you? It's like you're not even here." For the past few months, ever since they had defeated Davros and stopped his Reality Bomb, the Doctor's half-human double had been living on the parallel Earth with Rose and her family. Rose was delighted to have him back, but lately the Doctor had been spending all of his time just wandering around London or sitting idly on the couch, which was not like him at all.
"What? Oh, nothing. Just thinking, is all." They finished the dishes in silence, and the Doctor said, "Well, I'm off to bed. See you in the morning."
"Doctor, it's not even ten o'clock yet. How about a cup of tea?"
"No, I'm pretty tired. G'night."
"Night, then!" Rose had to shout, as he was already halfway down the hallway. She watched until he turned into his room.
"Oi, what's all the shouting about then?" Rose's mother, Jackie, came out of one of the bedrooms and looked at her daughter. "I just got Tony to sleep, don't you go waking him up now!"
"Sorry, mum, I was just talking to the Doctor."
The expression on her face must have given away how she was feeling, because Jackie replied, "Oh, sweetheart, what's wrong? You're not still on about that thing with your father, are you? I tell you what, if he's upset you that much-"
"No, mum, it's not about Dad," Rose said, cutting her off. "It's just… I don't think the Doctor likes it here. Like, being stuck in one place, you know? I mean, he's used to flying 'round the universe, stopping invasions, and now he's just... stuck."
"Well, whatchu mean about stopping aliens and such? This Doctor hasn't never done any of that stuff. He grew off of a hand, for goodness sakes!" She waved her own around in the air to prove her point.
"Yeah, but he's got all the same memories as the other Doctor. He can remember doing all that stuff! He must be bored out of his mind, with no aliens or anything to fight off. And it's not like he can go looking for trouble, either," she added as an afterthought.
"How come? There's got to be loads of people trying to invade Earth."
"Mum, he's only got one heart. If he dies, that's it! He can't regenerate, so he's got to live like the rest of us now." At that point, they could hear Tony wake up in the other room and start crying.
"Yeah?" Jackie said as she started down the hall. "Then why doesn't he get a job, start helping out around here?" She turned the corner into the room to calm her son.
Why didn't I think of that? thought Rose. After all, it wouldn't exactly be hard for him to get a job with all of the skills he had. And, she said to herself, he'll be able to pay for a date once in a while. Since they had become trapped in the same universe together, they had gone on a few "normal" dates. Normal only because they didn't involve saving the world or rescuing historical figures (we're looking at you, Charles Dickens).
I suppose I'll talk to him in the morning, she thought as she made her way to her bedroom at the end of the long hallway.
The next morning, Rose awoke a little earlier than normal. She lay in bed for a minute, then, remembering her conversation the night before, got up and dressed herself. Upon opening her door, she heard a frustrated cry followed by shrieks of laughter, and saw the whole scene as she entered the kitchen. It seemed that her little brother, Tony, had decided that no, he didn't want breakfast and it should therefore be thrown around the room. Jackie spotted her daughter and said, "Rose, thank goodness you're up. I've got to go to work, would you mind feeding Tony and dropping him off at daycare? Thanks, love you!" Rose barely had time to protest before she was handed a spoon and her mother was out the door. Hearing stifled laughter, she turned around to see the Doctor, sitting at the table, reading a book and drinking orange juice.
"Whatchu laughing at, then?" she asked him accusingly. He stopped, and Rose tried to convince her brother to eat his cereal, but no sooner had she handed him the spoon than the bowl was on the floor, upside down, with milk everywhere.
"It would seem that he doesn't like Frosted Mini-Wheats," said the Doctor looking up from his book to stare at Rose. "Here, let me help." He got up, opened the cabinet, and pulled out a box of kids' cereal. "Hey, Tony, do you like this? 'Spect you would, as it's 63 percent sugar," he commented, reading the back of the box. Getting a new bowl, the Doctor poured the new cereal and gave it to Tony. The toddler picked up his spoon and ate, not stopping until the bowl was empty.
"When'd you get so good around kids? Tony's been here two years and I'm still rubbish with him."
"Well, I am 900 years old, I expect at some point I've run across a fussy two year old." He knelt down to clean up the rejected cereal, and Rose took her chance to mention her mother's idea.
"So Doctor, do you ever get bored, just hanging around here all day?"
"Not really," he said. "I mean, I do stuff 'round the house, go out for walks-"
"Only Mum reckons, and I agree with her, that you might like to get a job, you know? Give you something to do during the day."
The Doctor paused in his cleaning to look quizzically at her.
"I don't know, Rose. What kind of job should I get?"
"Well, you're good with kids, and you're smart. You could get a teaching job, you know, at some local school or something." Rose glanced at the clock. "Speaking of, I've got to get to work. Come on," she said as she lifted Tony out of his high chair. " Let's get you washed up, then."
"You're not, you know, "said the Doctor, leaning against the counter as Rose perched her squirming brother on her hip and did her best to wipe away the milk smeared on his chubby cheeks.
"What?"
"Rubbish with kids. I bet you'd be a great mum someday." He said it without looking up, but it made Rose feel strange, almost embarrassed, and she could feel her face go red. Hurrying to finish washing Tony and load him into the car with all his necessary supplies, she left without saying goodbye.
After dropping her brother off at daycare, Rose drove herself to work at Torchwood Institute. She was an agent there, studying alien artefacts and building defencive weapons. Working there had given her an anchor when she first came to the parallel universe, a sense of purpose in a seemingly pointless existence without the Doctor by her side. The work of a Torchwood agent was a small connection to the life she had known since that first night when the Doctor grabbed her hand and told her to run from the Living Plastic, and normally she looked forward to work, but it was a slow day full of paperwork and she was relieved when it was time to go home. Knowing her mother was working late, she instinctively headed for the daycare and picked up Tony before returning to the house. As she struggled to open the front door with her hands full of nappy bags and two-year-old, it whisked open and she was greeted by a surprise.
"Hello, Rose!" said the Doctor enthusiastically as he stepped aside to let her in. "Here, let me take Tony for you." He took the toddler out of her arms and brought the giggling infant upstairs.
"Dad, what's wrong with the Doctor?" Rose asked, weary from her tedious day of work and genuinely concerned at the Doctor's drastic change in behavior from that morning. "He hasn't been, like, experimenting on himself or nothing, has he?" Pete Tyler chuckled to himself from his chair in the kitchen, but said nothing.
"I told him to give it a rest, and if he's been-" She was cut off as the Doctor bounded down the stairs and almost ran into her. He suddenly stood very straight, adjusted his tie, and buttoned up his trademark suit jacket.
"Miss Tyler," he said, his boyish grin sneaking in to an otherwise serious moment, "would you like to accompany me to the theatre tonight and then to a dinner for two?"
"I don't know, Doctor. Are you asking me out on a date?" Rose's mind was still swimming from her workday struggles and the screaming tantrum Tony had thrown in the car when she turned off the radio after the same song came on for the third time.
"I most certainly am. Do you accept my invitation?"
Rose hesitated, weighing her tiredness against the chance to spend some time alone with the Doctor, a feat that was difficult in a house with five people, one of which required constant supervision.
"I do." She declared, and a look passed briefly over the Doctor's face that was hard to read; she couldn't tell if it was happiness, or something more akin to surprise.
"Ah… Yes! Terrific! Very well then, I shall pick you up at 6:30!"
"Doctor, it's already 25 past."
"Well, I suppose we ought to get going, then. Allons-y!" He held out his arm and Rose took it, still wondering what was behind the sudden change of mood.