Rose's heels clicked on the tile floor of the library. It was her last day here. Tomorrow she would graduate with her Masters in English Literature. Shortly thereafter start her new position at Vitex publishing, her father's company. There were so many things that she would miss about Uni but none more than him.
She turned a corner and knocked on the door of a private study room. "Dr Smith, time to go. We're about to close." She'd met Professor John Smith back in her first year. He taught mathematics and all of the girls in her dorm had been tittering about the fit new professor.
So in her second semester, she'd signed up and found that he was everything that they'd said and more. He was gorgeous with chestnut hair that stuck up everywhere and he had this manic energy that got everyone around him excited. His smile was dazzling and her stomach did flips whenever she saw him and she saw him often. Sometime in her second year, she had found that he frequented a secluded study room in the basement of the library. If she had to guess, she'd say that he was hiding from the gaggle of fawning students who tended to follow him around.
Many of his students (girls and boys alike) had tried to seduce him. Some brought baked goods (Dr Smith had a sweet tooth), or gifted him with art. Many wore suggestive clothing and a few had brazenly asked him out. Rose's personal favourite was the girl who wrote love you on her eyelids. Every time she batted an eye, Dr Smith spluttered. The YouTube video got 50,000 hits.
Through it all though, he had managed to stay professional. Not once in his years here had there ever been the slightest hint of impropriety on his part. Rose didn't really know if she was disappointed or relieved by that.
"Just one more minute," he replied not bothering to look up from his notebook at her. Not in all of these years that she'd been shooing him out of this room at closing time had he ever been ready to leave when she arrived.
Letting out a sigh, she agreed. This was probably the very last time she would see him. Consequently, she let herself do something that she hardly ever allowed herself to do, stare at him. She liked the way that his nose was a little crooked and that one of his ears was a little wonky and that he tugged on it when he was thinking hard or the way he rubbed the back of his neck when he was nervous.
A few minutes later he stood, packed up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Thanks I just needed to finish that theorem before I lost my train of thought." He stepped out of the room and Rose shut the light out. "Do you have any plans for the summer holiday," he asked as they walked towards the lift. Often, he asked her questions or made small talk as they walked out.
"I'm spending a week in Majorca with some friends." The trip was a graduation gift from her parents. Well that and her own flat in London. She was especially grateful that she didn't have to move back home to her parents estate and be under her mum's watchful eye. "What about you?"
He smiled at her as they stepped into the lift. "Doing guest lectures at a couple of schools in America. Have you ever been across the pond?" When he nudged her with his shoulder shivers trailed down her spine.
Swallowing hard, she nodded. "My dad's firm has an office in New York. I interned there a few summers ago."
The lift opened and Rose exited, turning to go back to the office. She expected Dr Smith to head towards the exit. Instead he laid a hand on her arm. "See you next term then."
"I won't be back next term," she replied sadly. "Tomorrow, I'll graduate and I'm moving back to London."
"Oh, that's good. Brilliant that you've finally earned your Master's, it is your Master's isn't it?" He only paused his rambling for a moment while awaiting her reply. She nodded and he continued. "It's just that's it's been so many years now. Me studying here in your library. Well not your library, expect maybe it is. Your last name is on the building. The point is that I'm going to miss this, these little moments. With you, Rose Tyler," he babbled a hint of disappointment in his voice. Reaching up he rubbed the back of his neck.
Tears welled in her eyes and she blinked them back, refusing to let him see her cry. "Dr Smith, I…" Love you. I don't want to go. I will stay if you ask me to. All of those things were true but she couldn't say them. He was a professor and he would never see her as anything more than a student. "I'll miss these moments too." Turning on her heel, she walked away and didn't look back.
…
The Doctor grabbed a flute of champagne off the tray of a passing waiter. In one large gulp he drained it. For probably the fiftieth time tonight he wondered what he was doing here. Well that wasn't strictly true. He knew why he was here and what he wanted. It's just that he wasn't sure what she would think.
It had been over a year since he had even seen Rose. He hadn't been back to the library since the day before she graduated. For six years he'd only ever gone there for those few minutes that he would get to spend with her. It had been wrong to fall for a student.
When he'd seen her name on the roster he wasn't sure that she was that Rose Tyler. The Rose Tyler who was the heir to Tyler publishing fortune and whose great- great- great-grandfather had built the library and the building that housed the English department. He knew that she was attending Uni, the rumour mill amongst the professors and staff was just as bad as the students.
Whatever he'd been expecting from someone with who had grown up in a world of wealth and privilege, she wasn't it. Rose Tyler wasn't the least bit spoiled or stuck up. Instead, she was polite, kind and eager to learn and had an aura around her that seemed to brighten any room she was in. They barely spoke outside of his lectures but he had always managed to find her in the crowd of students.
To say he was disappointed when she didn't enroll for another one of his classes would be an understatement. Luckily only two weeks into term he'd found himself being tossed out of his secret hideaway by none other than Rose Tyler. At first he was surprised to find that she worked there. He was surprised to find her working at all, actually. It wasn't as if she needed the money.
A few weeks after their first encounter in the library, he'd asked her. Rose had laughed and told him that her mum had come from humble beginnings and had raised Rose to not think she was above other people. Besides, she loved books and the peace that the building brought to her.
Every night, when she walked him out he asked her questions and answered hers in return. A year later she confided that unlike her dad, her mum had grown up in south London on a council estate. Her parents had met at a party where Jackie had been a waitress. There had been quite a lot of gossip when Pete and Jackie had eloped a month later. He began to wonder if their eight year age gap and the fact that he had once been her professor would be a worse scandal.
Six months after that he'd told her that his own family had died in a fire. She'd hugged him then. It was one of only a few they had shared, even though he ached for more. Those brief conversations, the Doctor had confessed to Rose more about himself than he'd told in anyone, ever.
Slowly over those years, he'd fallen in love with her. Rose was so much more than just an heiress. She was amazing and he wanted to be with her. When she had gotten her undergraduate degree he thought that he could finally make his move. But she had decided to stay for her Master's so he waited.
Her graduation shouldn't have taken him by surprise but by then he'd taken their little game for granted. Maybe on some level he'd thought that she would go for her Doctorate. But he'd been wrong. She had moved back to London at the end of term and he thought that he'd lost his chance.
Except that she had looked so sad on that last day. That was the only thing keeping his hope alive and keeping him from bolting from this posh party. He tugged at his bow tie again, feeling ridiculous.
He'd been here an hour and still hadn't seen her. Despite Jack's assurances that Rose would be here, she wasn't. This had been a mistake. Having given up, he turned to go.
"Dr Smith," a familiar voice called.
...
His breath caught in his throat. He'd know that voice anywhere. Whirling around, he saw her making her way across the room. "Rose," he murmured.
Catching her tongue between her teeth, she grinned at him. "Dr Smith, what are you doing here?" she asked happily.
"Please call me John. Or Doctor, all my friends call me Doctor. I'd like to think that now that we're friends. I'm mean now that we're not in a student-teacher relationship." He could kick himself for rambling. Why, after spending so much time thinking about what he would say if he saw her again. "Not that it was ever really a student-teacher relationship, not after that one class of mine you took."
"Doctor," Rose said, laying a hand on his arm. "It's good to see you." Blushing, she looked away. "I missed you. I mean I missed our little late night chats in the library. Daft, I know but still."
She had missed him and he felt elated. Without thinking, he wrapped her in a hug. "I missed you, too. It's part of why I'm here. At this party, I mean." Her arms tightened around him and he giggled. He didn't know how long they stood there but it was long enough for their hug to really be considered an embrace. Behind them, someone coughed. Rose jumped back but didn't object when he left an arm around her waist.
"Is this guy bothering you?" A young man asked, scrutinizing the Doctor.
Shaking her held slightly, Rose smiled broadly. "No, the Doctor's just an old friend that I haven't seen in a while." The Doctor's arm tightened around her. "In fact, he and I were just leaving. Got a bit of catching up to do."
Taking her lead, the Doctor followed her across the room. Moving his arm from her waist, he grabbed her hand and she squeezed. It was evident that some things about her had changed. She was taking charge here and he liked it.
Once in the lobby, she turned to him. "There's a chippy across a few blocks away."
He nodded in response to her unspoken question and they walked had on hand down the street. There were so many things running through his head that he did know where to start. He finally settled on, "You look beautiful."
"Not so bad yourself. I don't think that I ever saw you in a tux in all those years, looks good on you." Giggling, she bumped him with her shoulder. "You never answered my question. What are you doing here?"
"Do you mean at the party or in London," he grinned back at her.
"Both."
"Well, I'm in London because I got a new job, teaching Maths at Kings College." His free hand rubbed the back of his neck. "As for the party, my friend Jack owed me a favour."
"Jack Harkness? My new events coordinator?" Rose laughed. "He and I are going to have words on Monday."
"Don't be too hard on him." Now that they had reached the chip shop, the Doctor held the door open for her. "He just knew how much I wanted to see you."
She ducked her head to hide the fact that she was blushing. "Then maybe those words will the thank you."
Over a couple of baskets of chips, that he paid for since her dress didn't have any pockets, they talked. The subject matter was all over the place from his trip to America to the fact that she wasn't cut any breaks at work because she was the boss's daughter. She'd had to work her way up from junior copy editor to assistant editor. The promotions were fast but none could say she didn't earn them. He told her how lonely he'd been without seeing her on regular basis and she confessed that she'd once driven all the way to their library hoping to see him, but had chickened out before she got out of the car.
They were finally shooed out the door by an employee that was rather keen on going home. Rose called for a car service and offered him a ride. Politely, he declined, deciding to take a cab instead since they lived in opposite directions.
They would see each other tomorrow and the next day and almost every other day after that. There would be dates and dancing, fights and making up, kissing and love making. There would be traveling and stargazing and a small scandal when the papers dug up her transcripts and found out that he had been her teacher for a semester.
That would all blow over when the Tyler's threw the wedding of the year. Time would pass and babies and eventually grandbabies would come. A life time full of happiness awaited the Doctor and Rose Tyler. But if you asked them they would tell you that one of their favourite memories was this one, the first time that he kissed her. Just the two of them, standing on a street corner at two o'clock in the morning.