Back with more Doctor Who! Haven't had much inspiration for my other stories (RL is a horrible fothermucker sometimes!) but this idea won't leave me alone. Thanks to everyone that's read my other Doctor Who works (and other fics) and left their reviews!
When Rose had taken her first steps into the TARDIS—filled with giddy anticipation and a hint of apprehension—the Doctor had made a point to explain a long and colorful list of rules that she was expected to follow.
"Never wander off," The Doctor warned, pulling a lever and twisting a few knobs on the control panel. He seemed to dance around the console and, while his tone was light-hearted, his eyes were cold and serious. "That's rule number one! Rule number two, no changing fixed events in time. It won't end pretty, so just don't do it. Third, no—and I mean absolutely no—backseat driving!"
Rose later admitted sheepishly that she'd been too awestruck to remember the vast majority of the 23 rules he'd prattled out to her. But, as she recalled the way the TARDIS quaked violently, with an alarm blaring in her ears and the Doctor frantically trying to stabilize their flight pattern, Rose remembered rule 13 of traveling with the Doctor.
Always expect the unexpected.
Rose groaned and ran her hands through her hair. Her shoulders slumped and her elbows rested on the table as she tried to block out the sound of the two most important people in her life bicker like an old married couple.
"Told me you'd keep her safe, you did! And what happens?" Jackie Tyler screeched.
"Rose is safe!" The Doctor defended, wincing as the middle-aged woman's voice raised another octave.
"Not in that rubbish bin you call a ship! What if you hadn't made it out in time?"
"The fires only burned for 45 minutes," Was his grumble of a reply, but Rose noticed the Doctor spare her an appraising glance, as though to be sure she really hadn't been harmed. Aside from a small scrape over her eyebrow, she was fine, and she gave the Time Lord a weak but reassuring smile. The Doctor visibly relaxed until Jackie smacked him upside the head.
"Oi!"
"Don't you 'Oi' me," Mama Tyler scowled.
"Mum, really!" Rose decided to cut in before this got any worse. "It's fine, I'm fine, everything's fine!"
Jackie gave another scathing glance at the Doctor and sat at the table with a huff. The Doctor rubbed his head with a frown and met Jackie "The Jackal" Tyler's glare with one of his own. The air was thick with animosity and Rose wanted nothing more than to just curl up in the TARDIS and fly away to Craxtaphalon 6 or whatever crazy place the Doctor could take her. From the puss on his face, the Doctor was thinking the same.
"How long until the TARDIS can fly again?" Rose asked, not really caring if her desperation sounded in her voice. The Doctor crossed his arms across his chest, the leather of his jacket creaking with the movement. He leaned back in his chair, the front two legs lifting off the linoleum floor as he reclined.
"She's still got to repair herself," His brow furrowed, obviously not pleased by what he was about to say. "Her core is drained, it'll take hours—maybe days—for her to recharge. No other repairs can take place until that happens and she won't let anyone in. Not even me."
"Can't say I blame her," Jackie muttered. When both the Doctor and Rose narrowed their eyes, she sighed, stood, and turned to the kitchen to put the kettle on.
"Well, at least we landed present day," Rose tried to be optimistic. "We can stay here until we're ready to leave."
"I was ready to leave the moment I caught a glimpse of the Powell estate," The Doctor admitted, but his lips curled into a slight smirk and Rose rolled her eyes.
"You're only half-joking." She accused.
"I never do anything half-way, Rose Tyler!" He landed all four legs of his chair on solid ground, all playful banter gone with one final smile melting into a grimace. "I don't fancy staying with your mother while we're grounded."
Rose shifted in her seat and nodded her understanding.
"Just for a bit?"
"Do we really have much choice?" The Doctor sighed. He and Rose looked out the window forlornly, staring at the blue police box resting on the side of the street.
"Days. Just for the core to recharge," Rose repeated distantly.
"Maybe a week for the actual repairs to be done," The Doctor added reluctantly.
"A whole week of..."
"Seven days of…"
"Domestic." They droned simultaneously. Jackie had chosen that point to return from the kitchen with tea and stared at the odd couple sitting at her kitchen table. She shook her head and placed a cuppa in front of her daughter and "guest".
"You're both nutters, you are."
Rose groaned and mushed her face into a soft pillow, shielding her eyes from the offending sunlight pouring in through her window. When that did little to help, she sighed and kicked the sheets off of her, squinting at the alarm clock on her nightstand. 7:02 a.m.
The blonde sighed and forced herself out of her bed. Truth be told, she had missed it, and if she could sleep the next week away she would. But, the thought of leaving the Doctor and her mother alone was enough to spur her forward. She grabbed a pair of jeans and pulled them over her hips, not bothering to change out of the t-shirt she'd worn to bed unless they actually planned on going out.
The rest of the flat was quiet, which meant Jackie was still asleep. That woman could sleep all day, Rose thought fondly. All the better, Rose didn't want to think of what it'd be like to wake up to the Doctor and her mother snapping at each other.
Rose padded into the living room and couldn't stop the grin from splitting her face in two. The Doctor was sprawled along the length of the sofa, one lanky leg hanging off the edge while the other dangled off to the side. His feet were bare, his boots and socks were kicked under the coffee table, and his toes flexed and curled as he slept. His jacket was pulled over his face, one arm folded over where his eyes would be, his other stretched above his head. His maroon jumper was pulled up, revealing a glimpse of his abdomen and belly button. The grey, wool blanket he'd been given was tangled around him like an anaconda. It wrapped through his legs, under his back, and across his chest, as though he'd tossed and turned all night as he tried to get comfortable.
Rose didn't doubt that he'd failed in that endeavor.
She debated with herself if she should wake him and move him into her bedroom so he could at least have a few decent hours of sleep, but thought better of it. The few times that the Doctor had actually slept around her, he'd proved himself anything but a morning person. He especially didn't like being woken up for anything short of the planet exploding—and even then it'd better be within the next thirty seconds.
Rose crept quietly into the kitchen and put the kettle on for morning tea. She pulled the curtains open and stared out into London, running her fingers through her tangled hair to work some small knots out. It all seemed so small and crowded and Rose laughed at how much her perception of her world changed since she started travelling with the Doctor. Everything just seemed so…tiny.
She rested her weight on the counter, gripping the edges with anxious hands. Her chest was tight and her throat was dry. Her breath came in shallow gasps and she realized she was suffocating. She was trapped, trapped in a world that had always been hers and yet had nothing that she'd want to claim.
What if the TARDIS couldn't be repaired? What if she and the Doctor were trapped on Earth until the ground swallowed them whole? She couldn't give up those innumerable stars that she'd only scratched the surface of. It would kill her and she could only imagine how the Doctor must be feeling.
Warmth encased her hands and caressed her back. The Doctor's hands covered hers on the counter and his hard chest was pressed against her back, he rested his chin on her shoulder and followed her eyes out the window, searching the cloudy sky for answers to his own questions.
The stood like that in companionable silence, neither needing words to express the thoughts racing through their minds.
Rose maneuvered her hand to intertwine her fingers with his.
I'm worried.
The Doctor squeezed her hands reassuringly.
Me too.
Rose gave the newly awakened Doctor a soft smile.
But everything will work out.
His lips quirked upwards briefly and he pressed his lips to her hair.
Just like they always do.
"G'morning," Rose said softly, so as not to wake her mother in the bedroom. "Tea?"
"Kettle's not gone off yet," The Doctor pointed out, his hands tightening around hers for just a moment. Rose sighed contentedly and leaned into the Time Lord's heat, returning her stare out the window.
"Six days…" She murmured.
"Six days."
"Sleep well?"
The Doctor frowned.
"If I didn't know better, I'd think the 'sofa' was an early-era torture device," to prove his point, the Doctor straightened and his spine popped loudly. Rose winced.
"Sorry."
The Doctor shrugged, his steel-blue eyes distant.
"It's a different feeling when we can't just up and leave like we usually do," Rose sighed, deciding to just throw their shared displeasure out into the open.
"We'll hop from planet to planet afterwards to make up for it," The Doctor promised, a grin revealing his white, blunt, humanesque teeth to her. His mirth was contagious and Rose mimicked the smile and nodded.
"Only six more days," She said, trying to put a positive spin on it.
"Six more days," the Doctor agreed with a cheeky smirk. "Then I can spread the tale of how we've bested the most ferocious creature in the universe and lived to tell about it."
"What's that?" Rose asked, arching a dark eyebrow.
"The Jacqueline Tyler."
Rose laughed and moved to take the whistling kettle off the stove top.
Maybe temporary domesticity wouldn't be as bad as she thought.