"Rose?" the Doctor almost whispered to Rose as she leaned against him reading.
"Yes Doctor?" Rose asked placing a finger in her book and tilting her head back to view him upside down.
"How long did it take you to get back to me?"
Rose crinkled her brow in consternation and proceeded to squirm her way around until her face was buried in her chest. "I don't think you really want to know."
"Of course I do, silly girl, otherwise I wouldn't be asking now would I?" the Doctor argued softly stroking her golden head of hair.
"Well, we lived a good long life together, he and I, travelling in our TARDIS. He lived for about 80 more years before his human body gave out."
"I had a feeling I'd live to a ripe old human age." The Doctor thought aloud, "but you know that's not what I'm getting at."
Rose took a deep breath, "How'd you guess?"
"I know you. And I know me. You, nor I, would never seriously risk the collapse of two universes to get you back to me. Plus, I remember what a superb job I did closing off the cracks last time around. Good word, that SU-PERB!" He enunciated slowly and clearly.
Rose shook her head at his arrogance and silliness and contemplated how to begin her story. "He and I had discussed several theories. You remember our first 'visit' to that universe?" The Doctor nodded in response and Rose continued. "Well one of our theories involved that crack we fell through."
Rose could tell the Doctor's brain was hard at work mulling over what she was telling him. "So what did you end up doing?" he prodded her to continue.
"Well," Rose sighed burying herself further into his chest if that were possible, prompting him to put his arms around her protectively. It was funny, this incarnation of himself had been one of his most awkward ones, until Rose came back and he found himself falling into old familiar habits somehow. "well...we did a lot of calculations...well, the Doctor did most of them as I looked on giving my input here and there. I actually could make sense of most of it. Aren't you proud of me?" Rose asked peeking up at him grinning. The Doctor smiled in response. Rose was still so young in so many ways. "Anyway, we were trying to figure out how we fell into that crack in the first place." Rose continued. "Remember the lever that Mickey was holding?"
"Oh yes, dear old Mickey. We didn't appreciate him much then, now did we? Look how well he grew up! Did I tell you that he and Martha got married?"
"NO! Really? Wow, well, wow. That's amazing!"
"Yeah, popped around to see them right before…well…right before…" the Doctor shook his head, "later, that will wait until later. Tell me about this lever then. If I remember correctly, and I always do," Rose rolled her eyes at this, "it wasn't anything important. Just something to give ol' Mickey boy to do. Make him feel important, useful."
Rose smiled yet again. Being with the Doctor was good. He may change but essentially he never really changed. "Oh you just think it wasn't anything important. Well, it wasn't really if it had only been held for the moment you originally intended. However, 29 minutes later and it mattered. I've noticed how now that the TARDIS fixed herself back up she didn't give you another version of that lever. You smart old girl." Rose said letting her free hand trail to the floor so that she could give the TARDIS a pat of approval. "She knew the consequences of that lever even if you didn't. Then again, I think she knew we needed to get to that parallel universe. She always knows, doesn't she Doctor, just where we need to be?"
"Yes, that she does." the Doctor responded fondly yet absentmindedly.
"The Doctor and I had a theory. If I travelled back in time before we ever stumbled upon that universe and subsequently left it, sealing up the crack, then I may be able to recreate the same 'accident' that led us there in the first place."
"Now Rose, that sounds far too simple, really. How did you know if your TARDIS would have even had the same lever to be able to create that scenario and that you would end up in this universe and not some other? Really, Rose, did he think all of those probabilities through?"
"Doctor, what do you think? Do you believe for a moment, that he would have sent me off to do something foolhardy, especially when he wouldn't be there to help me out?"
"Point taken." the Doctor agreed begrudgingly still mulling it all over in his head.
"I can assure you that in this avenue, the Doctor was more careful and methodical than I had ever known you to be. Knowing he wouldn't be there to help me troubleshoot he ran through every possible scenario or problem he could think of. In the end, he had to trust his calculations would turn out as he expected. He gave me enough warnings and advice and wrote it down for me and everything." Rose told the Doctor rolling her eyes at his continued incredulity.
"Let me see that." the Doctor grumbled under his breath, still not trusting his own calculations. All of a sudden, his eyes widened more than Rose thought possible. "He wrote…? You can read…?"
"Gallifreyan, Doctor?" Rose answered his unspoken question barely containing her amusement at the shock written across his face.
After a few moments of awed silence, finally he managed to say in a barely audible whisper, "He taught you…? You know…?" He couldn't keep his face from crumbling with emotion.
"Yes and yes." Rose softly replied; tenderly running her hands across his damp cheeks. "I never thought the TARDIS and I would have one up on you." At the Doctor's quizzical expression, she continued, "Doctor, I've been talking to you in Gallifreyan since I've come back. You just assumed the TARDIS was translating."
"Blimey!" was all he managed to get out at this revelation.
Rose laughed outright at his speechlessness, gently tweaked his chin, and then stretched to place an affectionate kiss on his forehead.
"Okay, okay, okay." The Doctor jumped up, dumping Rose unceremoniously on the couch. He clapped his hands and rubbed his palms together in his habitual way when deep in thought.
Rose pushed herself up from the couch and blew her disheveled hair out of her face in mock exasperation then grinned at his concerned expression, "Doctor?" she pressed.
At that, he snapped out of his reverie and snatched up the notes the Doctor made and started studying them in earnest. "So if you take into account the spatial difference…" he mumbled under his breath wandering out of the library.
Rose watched him walk out as if he had completely forgotten her presence when all of a sudden he poked his head back in the door and called "Come along, Rose!" at which she jumped up and followed him out to the console room.