The Doctor stared into the mirror gazing forlornly into his own ancient eyes as he raised a hand and pulled it though his hair causing it to stick up even more. He finally shook his head straightened his tie and turned around mentally preparing himself for the day. However, when he took a step forward he felt something in his pocket so he eagerly pulled it out to see what it was but froze when he saw the multicolored glasses that he held in his hand.
He started running. No other thoughts entered his mind except to hide the glasses away so he would not have to think about Canary Warf… and Rose. When he eventually made it to his large wardrobe he didn't pause, running past leather jackets and tweeds with celery pinned to the fronts. Finally he came to an abrupt halt, barely out of breath owing to the ridiculous amount of running the he was used to doing every time he set foot on another planet or different time period. He had stopped because he had seen something else that also brought memories flooding back. On a hanger not a foot in front of him was Rose's union jack t-shirt.
Slowly, he lifted it off the rack and then pressed it to himself almost as if he were trying to absorb it. Eventually he looked up and was surprised to see a door he had never known existed, directly behind where Rose's shirt had been hanging.
When he had gotten over his shock, he set down the t-shirt and glasses and went to the door pushing it open and stepped smartly over the threshold while he pulled out his sonic screwdriver. But instead of a dark ominous cavern he stepped into a brightly lit room almost identical to his wardrobe except it was filled with… was that a fez?
In The Doctor's opinion it was filled with the most ridiculous assortment of clothing ever and this was coming from a man who put on a suit with chucks and multicolored 3-D glasses. The Doctor spun in a slow circle and saw that on the racks there were plain dress shirts, jackets with elbow patches suspenders and… red and blue bow-ties? Who still wears bow-ties? The Doctor thought as he started to examine the shelves containing an assortment of hats from Stetsons and as he already noticed, fezzes. He picked up one of the jackets to examine it more closely and as he did he heard a clanking noise coming from one of the pockets. Carefully, he slid his hand into one of the pockets and when his hand touched something cold and metal, he grabbed onto it and pulled out… handcuffs? Who kept handcuffs in the pocket of their tweeds?
As he held the handcuffs up to eye level he heard a "zap!" and an unfamiliar voice said,
"Hello sweetie."
He spun around quickly and came face to face with a woman that had a wild mane of curly blond hair.
"I always wondered where that pair of cuffs had gone," she continued, "you're usually not one to carry around handcuffs but you can be quite sentimental. Although I still carry around this old thing," and she pulled out a tattered bow-tie.
"Who are you?" The Doctor asked. "And why are you carrying around that stupid old thing?"
"Spoilers," she said the corner of her mouth twitching upward. "And bow-ties are cool! Oh god now we're stealing each other's lines… Anyway Sexy called me. She usually does that when you're feeling down but she's ever so bad at keeping to timelines."
The mysterious woman glanced around and smirked again when she looked back at The Doctor and saw that he still held the handcuffs.
"So sweetie how young are we then?"
"I'm really not young you know."
The woman let out a humorless laugh but continued to wait for an answer.
"That's kind of personal," The Doctor mumbled.
Again she let out a laugh. "You know dear when it comes to you and me nothing is really personal or private."
Despite this woman's strangeness and cryptiveness he felt compelled to answer her so he did. The woman's brow creased for a moment, shot up in surprise until her expression finally softened.
"Rose. Of course," she said sadly as she stroked a bit of the TARDIS.
The Doctor was shocked and surprised. Besides himself and a few other people no one knew about Rose.
"Who are you?" he asked for a second time.
"Like I said spoilers dear," she smiled fondly. "Well I really best be off. The guards are used to me disappearing but I'd only just got back from one of the most wonderful nights at Darillium with you!" she winked. "Spoilers. To be honest I only came because Sexy said it was important. You made good use of those handcuffs tonight but now I'm quite exhausted sweetie, you bad boy," she chuckled. "I think I'm starting to rub off on you."
She pushed up her sleeve and started to type in coordinates into what The Doctor identified as a vortex manipulator. "Sexy will erase your memory of this after I leave so we don't mess up the time stream. Wouldn't want to do that again. Say hello to Ms. Jones when she comes along."
"Who?"
But River had already disappeared and The Doctor was left wondering why he had just shouted at thin air.
