Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
"But Mickey…"
"Don't Rose, just don't." Mickey's voice, full of his own peculiar form of emphasis and accent, shook. "You and I both know that…we've both felt that…we both knew…" He took a deep breath and she watched his chest rise and fall, afraid. "Look at the Doctor, Rose, look at him and tell me truthfully that you don' love him."
She couldn't do it. She hated herself for it, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.
"See Rose? You love him. You love him in a way that you never loved me and…and…" He swallowed and she watched his Adam's apple bob. "And that's okay, my dear. That's alright. But we're falling apart and you know it and we just need to…all we need is to…to make it official. Rose, we need to be done."
She nodded with tears rolling down her cheeks.
"We wouldn't have lasted anything, but the Doctor coming, the Doctor being here, appearing, he was what made us realize it." He kissed her. "There, our dying breath."
"Rather a nice dying breath." She giggled sadly.
"Good bye Mickey. I love you."
"I love you too, my dear." He smiled sadly and stepped off the TARDIS doorstep into the world, the real world. He looked back at her and smiled a little bit. "I'll never forget you. We can stay friends. I mean that. I'd like it."
She smiled back as well. "Yes, yes I'd like that too. And Mickey, find someone else. Go out with someone. Promise me you will."
The TARDIS doors started to close slowly as he answered. "Yes, I promise Rose. I met a girl. Maybe I'll go out with her, go on a date."
She grinned at him, loving the idea of Mickey having someone else. "What's her name?" She called as the doors closed a little more.
"Martha!" Was the last thing she could hear through the closing doors. "Martha Jones!"
She smiled as she saw the last little bit of light shine through the doors, and then she broke down crying, sobbing on the floor of the TARDIS, collapsed in a heap.
The Doctor appeared out of nowhere, from somewhere within the depths of the TARDIS.
With anyone else, she wouldn't have paid attention to anything, any words or voice, but it was her Doctor, and so she heard the smile in his voice as he came out and asked, "Where's Mickey?" And she felt his smile fade as his eyes fell on her.
She started to try to blink back the tears. She was Rose Tyler. She didn't cry. She didn't show pain.
She blinked and held back the tears for five seconds and then they came back worse than before.
Totally unexpected, she felt arms around her, arms holding her tighter than she thought they could. She turned and found the Doctor's shoulder and wept into it, not expecting this kind of affections or understanding from him but certainly not complaining.
"Doctor…"
"Yes Rose?" His calming voice, still North London, but verging on Scottish, asked her softly.
"I dream about you." She didn't know why she was finally telling him this but she didn't care at that moment. "I dream about you most nights. And like, I didn't dream of you because I hadn't seen your face but I dreamt of men like you. Like you."
She felt him smile into her and it made her feel a little better.
"And like, Doctor, you're my everything. You're my whole life now. And like, you're always doing things that hurt me and it makes me feel like….like absolute…like I'm the dirt on the bottom of your shoe but I can't even…I can't even bring myself to get mad at you because I'm so in love with you."
He didn't say a word, but instead pulled her up to her feet and snapped his fingers and a slow, sweet little song started playing. He pulled her to him and started swaying back and forth, dancing. It took her a moment to get used to it, and when she moved her hand she found herself accidentally flicking a lever on the TARDIS control board.
She froze and so did he as they turned to figure out what she had hit, but as they turned the whole of the TARDIS interior started to change colours, red and orange and yellow, flickering and dancing slowly as if it was on fire.
The Doctor and Rose looked around the room and she felt her breath catch in her throat; it was beautiful.
Yes, she would miss Mickey, but it wasn't as if he was gone forever. He didn't have to be. She could keep contact.
The Doctor pulled Rose in as the music started to play again and held her tight against him and she laid her head down on his shoulder, closing her eyes and just swaying with the music, enjoying every moment.
He muttered something that she didn't quite catch. "Hmm?"
"I said, I think we should do this more often."
She smiled, eyes still closed. "Yes please."
And together they stood there, not quite dancing, merely swaying, merely discovering one another and held each other close as they danced there in that beautiful moment, that beautiful room.
Her beautiful Doctor.