"Hurry up, Rose," Jackie called from the hallway, putting on a comfortable pair of shoes as she called to her daughter. "We're gonna be late if you don't get a move on."
Rose didn't get up from her chair, sitting in front of her dressing table and tapping a tube of mascara on the wood to a random tune. This had been the third time she had been called and hadn't answered, and Rose knew her mother was going to get angry. Well, she was a grown woman, wasn't she? Almost twenty-one, in fact, her birthday only a week or two away. She could chose where she wanted to go and when. As she stopped tapping the mascara on the table and went to apply it to her already dark lashes, a memory seized her, those flashbacks she loved and hated so much.
"Come on, Rose," the Doctor said from the doorway to her room, leaning jauntily against the woodwork and watching as she put on her mascara, amazed at the little brush and how she never managed to stab herself in the eye like most people did. "We're going to be late if you don't hurry up."
"Rose, didn't you hear your mother?" Mickey said from the other side of the closed door to Rose's room, "It's time to go. If we don't leave now, we're going to be late for the fireworks."
"Alright, I'll be down in a moment," Rose called, sighing in frustration. Couldn't they tell she really didn't want to go? It had once been one of the best parts of summer, but now Rose didn't know if she could get through the night. She didn't even have an outfit picked out and, glancing at her open closet, saw all the clothes and shoes hanging from their hooks, just waiting to be tossed on the bed.
"Is your room always this much of a mess," the Doctor said, "Or was this just for a special occassion?" He looked over at Rose with a gleam in his eye, a smile spreading across his face as Rose, blushing, had gathered all her shirts, undergarments, and shoes from the bed and pushed them out of sight. He had to pick the moment she decided to clean out her closet to visit her in her room for the first time.
Rose, getting up from the dresser and walking across the room, looked for a zip up sweater to go over the plain black tank top she was wearing at the moment, something that would go with the new pair of jeans she had bought just yesterday. While she changed into the jeans and slipped on a pair of sandals, Rose caught sight of a pink sweater-jacket, very soft and warm for a rather chill summer night. She knew why she had pushed it to the back of the closet, never worn since it's last wash nearly a year ago. However, all her other jackets were either in the wash or would take more than a few minutes of digging around to find them and, hearing Mickey warn he was going to stomp back up the stairs and drag Rose down to the hallway where Jackie was waiting if she didn't hurry up, Rose snatched the pink jacket and left her room.
"Dear, we're going to have a great time," Jackie said, looking around the back of her seat and trying to make eye contact with Rose. "You always loved the fireworks before, why don't you want to go now?"
"Mum, you know why," Rose said, trying to avoid looking at her mother and choosing instead to gaze out the window at the houses rushing by. "I don't want to talk about it."
"But you haven't done anything fun for months and months on end! For heaven's sake, even Mickey and I have more of a social life than you do!"
Mickey, looking away from the road for a moment, something Jackie always hated seeing him do, glanced into the backseat to see Rose curled up, resting her forehead against the window. That wistful expression was on her face again and, as Jackie opened her mouth to say something else, Mickey laid a hand on her arm.
"Best not to bother her, Jackie, m'dear. She just wants some alone-time right now."
Rose was thankful for his observation and attempt to keep her mother silent. Right now, she wanted to ask them to turn the car around and go back home, but to do so would start Jackie up again on how Rose should go out and try living her life, a speech Rose had not only heard a hundred or so times, was something she didn't think she could handle at the moment.
"Where are we going?"
"To the fireworks, Doctor, of course! It's the best part of the summer! You've seen fireworks before, right?"
"Of course."
"Well, you've never seen any like these before, I can tell you that!"
Rose handed Jackie a large blanket big enough for two out of the trunk while Mickey went ahead to find a spot on the hill not already taken by the crowd. She was pleased to find her mother had brought along Rose's favorite blanket, a fluffy white one with small hearts across the edges. Thank goodness she had not brought along-
"Here you are, Rose," her mother said as she pulled another blanket out of the bottom of the trunk, a large nappy green one. "You can lay this down on the ground so you don't get the white one dirty."
Jackie must have seen the look of horror and sadness spread over Rose's face because she gave a small, impatient sigh before making Rose take the blanket from her.
"You have to move on, Rose. Start living your life again. He's not here, he isn't coming back; isn't it just easier to pretend he never existed?"
"I guess it would be," Rose answered, saying what she knew her mother wanted to hear, half heartedly smiling as she took the blanket and laid it over the white one before tucking them both under her arm. Jackie smiled and patted Rose's cheek.
"That's the stuff," she said before closing the trunk, "Come find Mickey and I if you would like and sit with us. It's not good to always be by yourself."
"I'll keep that in mind, thanks."
"Aren't you going to come with us?" Rose asked her mother, the doctor following her into the kitchen where Jackie was cleaning off the countertops. "It's not good to be by yourself all the time, mum."
"No, you two go and have fun. Be sure to be careful and take care of him," Jackie said, nodding her head in the direction of the doctor, who had started poking around in the cupboards. "Enjoy yourselves. Can you walk there or do you need a ride?"
"We'll be alright," Rose said, pushing the Doctor out of the kitchen, waving goodbye, and grabbing the nappy green blanket off the railing.
There were not many people on the hillside, an odd change from the usual crowd that spread their blankets all over the small field right outside of town. The sounds of a band floated on the summer breeze from the town just a few blocks away, the grandstand the required amount of yards away from where they were going to be lighting off the fireworks. The few who had not been drawn into the lights and sounds and smells of the late summer celebration were relaxing on the hillside, facing the town and waiting for the band to stop playing as a sign the fireworks were going to start.
"What is the point of all this?" the Doctor had asked, "All the music and food and such chaos?"
"It's fun," Rose had answered, paying the foodstand for the small cakes and drinks and nestling the bag of snacks into her arms alongside the blanket. "It's a community coming together to celebrate a season. Really, you can't mean you don't understand any of this?"
"Of course I understand," the Doctor answered, grinning, "I was wondering if you were going to take me seriously."
"That's not very nice."
"When have I ever been very nice?" he laughed, taking the blanket from Rose and grabbing her hand in his. He was never content just holding hands, he constantly had to be moving, his fingers twitching, sometimes swinging their arms back and forth in a careless, carefree sort of way. Rose smiled and led him out of the large crowd of people and toward the distant hill.
Rose wrapped the white blanket closer around her, slipping off her shoes and digging her toes into the warm folds of the green cloth under her. Her stomach growled and she regretted not grabbing a quick bite to eat before leaving the houes.
The Doctor finished spreading out the blanket, Rose waiting patiently for several minutes as he made sure there was hardly a wrinkle before flopping down on top of it.
"Tell me, what was the point of that?" Rose asked, sitting beside him and opening the bag of food, the warm scent of freshly baked goods mingling with the smell of grass. "You ruined all your hard work. There are wrinkles and folds all over now, and it's not perfectly straight anymore."
"I'm not ruining it. Rather, I'm enjoying it. Not disappointed, are you?"
"Nope, just amused," Rose answered, handing the Doctor his part of the meal.
"Why, this is a tasty snack," he said after several minutes of eating. "We should have this more often, don't you agree?"
Glancing around, Rose waiting out the time until the fireworks, she found her mother and Mickey a little ways away, cuddled up in their blanket and laughing about something. She was happy her mother finally had some companionship again, but couldn't help notice she was even more alone than before. Before the Doctor, she had her mother. Then, her mother was alone while Rose traveled the stars, and now Rose was in her mother's place: watching, waiting, hoping for someone to come home to her. Rose tried to push these thoughts out of her head and noticed the band had stopped playing. She could hear someone with a microphone onstage ask the crowd to countdown to the first firework and hundreds of people started counting down from ten.
"That was a surprise, now wasn't it?"
"You had until the count of ten to prepare yourself, Doctor."
"Still, I mean, a loud explosion and a large purple plume of fire and smoke? That's always going to be a surprise, no matter how much time you have."
Rose smiled as a large red firework lit up the night sky, followed by a dull boom as the inner case of the firework exploded to let golden stars explode in the middle of the red shower of sparks. The red one was followed by several small green sparks that reminded her of trees, which was followed by more golden stars.
"These things have names, right?"
"The fireworks? Yeah, but darned if I know any of them," Rose answered, staring at the sky in wonderment as a large white firework exploded, the silver sparks fading to gold as they slowly disappated and floated away, more fireworks taking it's place. The pounding explosions made her jump and even the Doctor was taken by surprise as a small pink firework in the shape of a flower lit up the hillside.
"Oh, they make shapes now? Impressive? Amazing how such a small thing can make more noise than the bigger ones," the Doctor observed, sitting up on the blanket and moving closer to Rose.
The pyrotechnic display lasted nearly twenty minutes, and Rose was disappointed to say the least that they didn't have very much variety, the same shapes and colors and sounds over and over again. The few couples on the hill got up, laughing and talking as they folded their blankets and picked up any remaining items they brought with them. Rose could see Mickey and Jackie not moving from their spot on the hill, probably having a good snog. With a sigh, Rose pulled the blanket around her; it really was a cold summer night.
"Augh, it's too hot," Rose muttered during a lull in the fireworks, multicolored stars with silver tails shooting in every which direction with soft booms. As Rose tried to shrug off the pink jacket, the Doctor grabbed a corner of the shoulder and helped her pull it off, rubbing the fabric between his fingers.
"Oh, we're about to miss a good one," the Doctor said, nudging Rose and bringing her attention back to the sky where a large firecracker swirled up in the air higher than any of them that night, leaving a light purple trail behind it flecked with silver sparks. As the firework burst with a loud snap and became a lovely green puff of gold and silver, the sky erupted in colors as the last of the fireworks were lit off all at once, the crashes and bangs ripping the air apart.
Rose turned to look at the Doctor, who had been staring at her for what must have been several moments before that particular moment where, as the world seemed to come to an end in massive sounds and colors, they shared a single kiss, their first.
"Ready to go, Rose?" Jackie asked, trying to see her daughter in the darkness, "These colors sure do some work on your eyesight, don't they?"
"Oh, we're leaving?"
"Yes, dear, unless you would like to sit on this hill for the rest of the night," Jackie laughed, failing to be funny. "When you are ready, you can come join us in the car. We'll wait."
"Thanks. I'll be there in a bit."
Mickey and Jackie walked away hand in hand, Jackie carrying the blanket and chattering away. Rose sat still for a minute, replaying the last few moments of last year's fireworks display as many times as she could in her head. Shutting her eyes tight, she sighed and felt a few hot tears fall onto her hands as she tugged the blankets off. Her knees didn't want to listen as she stood up and tried to walk up the hill.
"Come on, now, don't make me carry you up the hill," the Doctor muttered, laying back and putting his hands behind his head, Rose curled up beside him, nearly asleep.
"We're leaving?" she asked groggily, so comfortable on the blanket over the grass, next to the Doctor and the smell of his coat.
"Are we planning on staying here all night? What about tomorrow?"
Rose looked at the Doctor and smiled.
"Tomorrow can wait."
Slowly, Rose made her way up to the car and waited for tomorrow to come.