A week.
She'd been stuck a week in the suburbs of Hartford, CT with the psychic paper, a thousand dollars and her phone.
He had stopped answering her calls after she yelled at him the first ten times he actually answered. Maybe he stopped answering on purpose or he just couldn't for a very good reason he was going to give her before she decided that not even his really great hair or wonderful oral fixation could save him.
She was staying in a motel that had nothing to offer her except a television that allowed only MTV to come in clearly and there was only so much of 'The Hills' any sane person could take. She wondered only for a moment if before she met the Doctor she might have actually enjoyed the show. Frightened by that thought, she quickly turned off the TV and ran out of the room then to the street that constantly seemed deserted. Rose could remember seeing maybe ten cars over the past seven days.
"Bollocks," she murmured, walking into the street. She stopped at the double yellow lines, looked around then sat on the pavement.
Rose relished the coolness coming from the pavement then felt it vibrate a bit and glanced up to watch a truck rumble by. The driver paid her no heed and she smiled to herself. The pavement shifted again as a minivan went by honking its horn, but Rose didn't move from her spot. Instead, she stretched out on the gravel. Her right cheek rested on the ground and she ignored the pointed rocks it consisted of. Another car rumbled by and she closed her eyes to fool herself for moment to mistake the rumble for the hum of the TARDIS.
"Is this something I should be worried about?" a familiar voice with an amused tone asked from above her. "Or did you merely trip?"
"I'm currently thinking up ways to kill you," Rose answered. "You shouldn't leave without me anymore."
"I didn't want to, but for reasons that are truly ridiculous now," the Doctor started. "I did and it was a terrible decision. Much like the one you're making to lie in the middle of the street devising ways to kill me. You can continue with your list of death, but the TARDIS may be a safer location for it. Though it may really be for you because she'll most likely help you with ways to kill me. Or make my life quite miserable."
Rose gave him a look as she got to her feet. It softened slightly as her eyes fell on the bandage on his neck and the dark bruise adorning his right cheek.
"You were hurt," she stated.
"Ah, yes," he agreed with a wince. "A reason I shouldn't have left you."
"I do hope there are more," Rose returned with a furrowed brow. "And that you intend to make this up to me. A week in the suburbs is not a vacation."
"To the nearest beach," the Doctor replied with a grin, but it faltered at her glare. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I love you?"
"Do you?"
"Of course. Without question. Indubitably. More than I love breathing or eating bananas."
"You do like your bananas."
"But I'd give them up so you and the TARDIS don't find it necessary to lace my next cup of tea with aspirin."
"It's tempting," Rose told him.
"What?" the Doctor responded. "The banana sacrifice or the aspirin death?"
Rose only smiled enigmatically and began to walk away.
"Rose?" the Doctor called after her. "Rose, the TARDIS is in the other direction." She kept going the opposite way. "Rose, you also didn't answer my question. I'm not going to be able to sleep until you do give me answer. Not that I sleep much, but I definitely won't be able to now. Or even do much of anything else. Rose, this is going to plague me and I hate being plagued almost as much as the actual plague. And you know how I feel about the plague." He ran a hand through his hair then ran after his wayward girlfriend. "Rose, please don't kill me. My next body could be even ruder and ginger, and that just wouldn't be fair."