Stuck With You
Kathryn Hart
When Rose makes a seemingly harmless wish in a powerful wishing well, she learns an equally powerful lesson. Be careful what you wish for. Humor, Romance, Friendship, Drama Ten/Rose
Y'ello! I know in my last fic I said my next fifty fics will be in other fandoms so what is #51? You got it. Some good ol' Ten/Rose. Enjoy! :)
"Yeah but, stuck with you, that's not so bad."
"Yeah?"
"Yes."
Be careful what you wish for,
'Cause you just might get it all
~Daughtry
Chapter 1 – The Wish
Rose couldn't stop the excited bounce in her step. The Doctor had just promised to take her to a paradise planet for a day of spas and relaxation. He had become increasingly worried about her ever since the incident with the Beast, nearly falling into a black hole, thinking he was dead and the Beast predicting her supposed death and all, even though it happened over a month ago. In truth Rose was fine. Sure, she still had nightmares of falling into an endless black hole with no one but the Beast's terrifying laughter, but really she was fine. In fact, the Doctor looked more shaken by it than she had. Maybe he had been. After all, he had nearly lost her too.
But Rose wasn't planning on making him aware of that fact. If he wanted to pamper her to make up for what had happened, let him. It'd make him feel good and give her a day to just sit back and not worry about being chased or eaten by anything. Although, knowing them, the manicurist would turn out to be a vampire or something. Rose chuckled. She should bet on that happening.
"Are we there yet?" Rose drew out in an obnoxious whine. The Doctor looked up at her as he rotated a dial on the TARDIS console. He tried to look sternly at her but ended up biting back a smile.
"Nearly. Had to recalibrate the dimensional thrusts and..." he noticed the familiar glaze in her eyes and cut off the rest of his sentence. So she didn't have a mind for science. Her bravery and compassion more than made up for it. He stopped as her big brown eyes stared straight into his soul. He looked deeply into them; those eyes he never thought he'd see again after he chose to risk her life to save them all from the Beast. Rose seemed to frown at his intense gaze and he snapped out of it, continuing to pull levers to get them to their destination.
"Push that button would ya?" He asked her.
"This one?"
"No, that'll take us to Stalin's Russia, the one next to it."
"This one?"
"The Bermuda Triangle."
"This one?" She giggled.
"Yes, that one." Rose grinned. It was the first time since he had regenerated that he had asked her to help him pilot the sentient ship. Her first Doctor was well on his way to showing her and Jack how to fly with him when the Game Station and the Daleks happened. She had long ago forgiven him for not telling about regeneration sooner as well as leaving Jack, but thinking about it still stung. Oh well. Water under the bridge. Today was going to be a fantastic day, and nothing would spoil it...
"Welcome to Kalla 12!" The Doctor shouted triumphantly, throwing open the doors. "Rated number 4 planet in the top ten destinations for the discerning intergalactic traveler." Although Rose was in absolute awe of the planet's intense beauty, she couldn't stop herself from replying.
"Only number 4? Why can't we go to number 1?"
"Oh, number 1 is too boring. Planet of the coffee shops and all that. Everybody goes there. Now this! This is where you want to go to have fun!" He grabbed her hand, leaning close to whisper in her ear. "Run!" Their laughter echoed around the valley as they raced off, after all, what kind of adventure would it be without some running?
"So...number 4. What's wrong with 2 and 3? Not that I'm complaining." The Doctor still hadn't let go of her hand as they strolled down the busy streets.
"Number 2 aka Appalapachia is under quarantine with Chen 7, aka the One Day Plague. Only contagious to aliens with two hearts. That would ruin our day, wouldn't it?" He grinned at her.
"Number 3?"
"I've already taken you there."
"Really? Women Wept?"
"No, that's number 9. Well, it should be 9, actually it's 99. Well actually it can't since there's only ten on the list but..."
"Doctor?"
"What?" He looked at her like he had totally lost his train of thought. And that same train had derailed off a cliff.
"Number 3?"
"Oh yes! New Earth!"
"With the city of New New York?"
"That's the one."
"But it didn't seem very...exciting, besides the hospital and all that." The Doctor opened his mouth in a state of shock.
"Rose Tyler! I never take you anywhere that's not exciting! I only took you to the hospital. New Earth is actually famous for their Zupa Ball Tournaments."
"Zupa Ball Tournaments?" She gave him a disbelieving look. The Doctor pointed at that look on her face.
"Y'see, you gave me that same look when I told you it was the city of New New York. Why do you ever doubt me?"
"There was..." Rose immediately stopped herself from saying something she would regret. Oh let's see, you don't tell me about regeneration until the minute it's happening, you've abandoned me more than once and- She angrily stopped her line of thought. She loved traveling with the Doctor, and she wouldn't have it any other way, faults and all. The Doctor didn't seem to notice her discomfort as he pulled her under the awning of one of the buildings.
"Oh Doctor, this is heavenly!" The two of them were currently being treated to massages by the inhabitants of Kalla 12, blue skinned and enormously tall and lanky creatures that reminded Rose of the aliens on the second Star Wars. Plus, their twelve fingers made the massage experience "out of this world" to pardon the pun. Rose looked over and grinned at her Time Lord companion. His face was flushed and he looked very uncomfortable, not being used to this sort of thing. He squeaked as the alien touched a particular spot on his bare back.
"Doctor, are you ticklish?" She'd had the suspicions before, but to see him like this was hilarious! Especially remembering when he would continue to prattle on about how more advanced his biology was compared to humans. Well, he hadn't done that since he regenerated, but it was still amusing.
"N-no it's just..." He gave an unmanly squeak again before leaping off the bed and grabbing his shirt off a nearby chair. "Yeah, I'm going to wait outside." Trying to hide the redness in his face, he strutted outside like nothing embarrassing had happened to him. Rose just giggled and placed her face back down, fighting off the urge to fall asleep.
A manicure, a sunbath, and a stroll along the park later, the Doctor and Rose were seated in an outdoor cafe, eating fruit off a plate that looked like tiny purple strawberries but tasted like grapes.
"Try me!" The Doctor urged Rose to throw one across the table and into his mouth. Rose looked skeptical that he could do it but threw one anyway. The Gallifreyan did manage to catch it, but nearly knocked his chair over backwards in the process. As he righted his chair and munched on the fruit, he glared at his blonde companion.
"You, Miss Tyler, are a terrible shot." Rose managed to look hurt. The Doctor wasn't buying it. "The only problem with you having those great big doe eyes is that you can't lie with them." He smiled, seeing her eyes sparkle. It was one of his favorite features about her. Besides her grin, or her laugh, those big red lips...
"You're right. Completely see through I am." Rose's laughter brought him out of his reverie. "So..." She leaned back in her chair, turning sideways to look at the creek running beside their table. "Anything else planned before we go?" And have you felt like you've made up for what happened yet?
"Just one more thing, then we can go back to the TARDIS." He stood up, not before shoving a handful of fruit into his mouth, which hampered his ability to speak clearly. Rose just smiled and took his offered hand.
"A wishing well?" Rose read the sign as they approached a very old well. An enormous tree loomed above it, sprouting a lovely shade of pink leaves. Rose gripped the side of the well and peered down into it. It was very deep, but if she squinted, she could see a pile of...something pink, the same color as the tree in fact. She looked at the Doctor in question.
"This is the legendary Wishing Well of Sune." He reached out and wrapped a hand around her waist, pulling her to his side and together they peered down the well. His voice echoed around them as he continued. "It's said that any wish made from the purest of hearts will be granted, no matter how big or insane the wish." She went to reach into her pocket to grab a coin but the Doctor stopped her. "Here on Kalla 12 it's considered wasteful to throw away money. They have no casinos or lotteries and look down on anything of the sort." He pointed upwards and Rose looked in the same direction. The Doctor reached up above them and plucked off a soft-pink leaf from the tree, handing it to her. Her eyes widened as she marveled at it. The Doctor's voice lowered to a whisper.
"Just make your wish silently, and drop the leaf into the well." As Rose contemplated her wish, she was reminded of those times the Doctor had abandoned her, or she had been trapped by something or someone and taken her away from the Doctor. Especially last week when he had become trapped in one of Chloe's drawings.
"Who's gonna hold his hand now?" She felt her greatest fear that she felt deep in her heart every time: when she thought she'd never see him again.
She closed her eyes as she made her wish, before releasing the leaf to sway gently away from them. Rose immediately turned around, smiling at the Doctor.
"Just a silly legend." The Doctor tended to agree with her but didn't reply.
"Back home to the TARDIS?" He asked her instead. She nodded, loving that he referred to it as her home as well, and the two of them strolled away.
The pink leaf Rose dropped reached the bottom of the well, resting on the pile of leaves that had been dropped before. Leaves that were still intact because of wishes made for money, power or selfish desires. Rose's leaf sat still for a few seconds, before beginning to glow to a bright gold, then exploding into a pile of pink dust.
"I wish I would never have to be separated from the Doctor..."
The Doctor meandered around the TARDIS' console. By Rose's Earth standards, it was very late at night. After they stopped at the wishing well, they had gone straight back to the TARDIS. The Doctor was a bit wary on the walk back but amazingly, they hadn't run into any trouble. Rose noticed too.
"Wow, I think that's the first time ever something we planned to go trouble-free has actually turned out right."
"There was that time on Melodroria, when I took you to the largest shopping center this side of the universe."
"You forget though. That one alien...a Trolian was it? He discovered your credit stick was fake and you nearly got into a huge fight before the authorities kicked us out. That's another planet I can't go back to, thank you very much." The Doctor grumbled moodily. It wasn't even his fault. His credit stick was real alright. How he acquired it was the fake part.
The Doctor glanced another look towards the direction of Rose's bedroom. She had gone to bed two hours ago, and the Doctor felt something in his hearts that he hadn't felt in a long time. It was longing. It was the reason he continued to pace around the TARDIS, not bothering to pick a destination so they were flying aimlessly through the vortex. Maybe hearing Rose say she was going to die in battle bothered him more than he thought. Maybe he needed a good night's sleep.
The Doctor immediately threw that idea off. He hadn't wanted to sleep since before the Time War, and every time he did, he was filled with intense nightmares beyond compare.
But maybe that was why he was feeling so frazzled, those horrible nightmares. No, that couldn't have been it. Those were the kinds of feelings that kept him awake. Why did he feel so tired?
He didn't have an answer, but what it was was the peace and security he felt with Rose's presence. He had a semblance of companionship with her that seemed to fill the emptiness left by Gallifrey's destruction. The fear of an uneasy night was made better by the sight of her face in his mind. She had made him better, had changed him more than he even knew himself.
Making a decision, he passed Rose's room on the way to his room and glanced back one last time. He hoped she was sleeping well, and that he'd be able to follow suit.
He opened the door to his bedroom and stiffened. He had only been in here a few times since his Eighth life, and the TARDIS had kept it mainly the same, even though the interior had changed since then.
Originally Time Lords didn't require much sleep, only one or two hours a week. But the Doctor, being a sentimental old fool, had a bedroom very much like one of his human companions would. Just to close the species gap between them a little bit more.
There was a bed, a nightstand with a lamp on it, and a shelf with a few books on it. Usually the Doctor just took a cat nap in the library or the den, his bedroom was mainly for getting some peace and privacy away from his companions. He hadn't needed nor wanted that yet, he realised with a start.
The Doctor peeled off his jacket and dropped it on the floor carelessly. He took off his trainers and threw them on his coat. Soon his socks, tie and shirt followed and all he was wearing was his pants. He crawled into the familiar covers and felt the TARDIS' consciousness surround his mind in a comforting embrace. Everything felt right somehow. Except for...what was that?
Something was pulling him. Like a hand had gripped his insides and was pulling with all its' strength. He collapsed out of bed and frowned. The unknown thing was now pulling him towards the door. He tried to resist but found he was just moving faster. His hearts quickened as he imagined a hundred thousand explanations. Had a hostile alien taken over his body? Was the TARDIS magnetizing herself again? Rose! He had to find her, keep her safe. She had to be safe in her own home!
The Doctor's body was slammed forcefully against the door. If he didn't get it open soon he'd crash right through it. After he was free of the door he was propelled down the hallway. Whatever he was heading for, he'd find out soon.
Rose had been sleeping soundly and, for the first time since the Doctor fell into the pit on that law-defying asteroid, nightmare free. But she woke up to a strange feeling. Looking at the clock she kept only for keeping time on board the limitless time machine, she saw she had only slept for two hours. What had woken her up? She shouted in shock as her body was thrown out of her bed and she hit the cold floor painfully. What the hell? Her body was now heading towards the door, which thankfully was already cracked open a touch. "Doctor!" She shouted as she was projected like a missile down the hallway.
The Doctor heard her shout. "Rose!" His hearts unclenched in relief as he saw her, still dressed in her nightie, rushing towards him, wait, they were heading straight for each oth– THUNK!
After that painful jar to his body, he looked down and saw Rose attached to his side.
"Rose..." He said, rather quietly. "What exactly did you wish for?"
Please review! I'll post chapter 2 in a few days :D