Chapter 1

Set after "New Earth"

"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it."

― George Augustus Moore

After the last adventure, the Doctor decided that maybe his companion needed a break. Her being possessed by Cassandra so soon after his regeneration…well, he supposed that made him seem like some sort of irresponsible idiot who couldn't take care of his friends.

Which, he supposed, he was. Except for that 'idiot' bit, of course. He was absolutely brilliant and most definitely not an idiot.

Quietly, he wondered how he could make it up to her. He decided he'd just let her choose where they'd go next or what they'd do next. Yeah, that sounded like a good plan.

He got up from his seat in the console room and headed for a hallway. Any hallway would do, after all. Any room in the TARDIS was not in the same location twice so it would be futile to go looking for the hallway he found Rose's room in the last time.

He found the room relatively faster than he had expected. The TARDIS had seemed to take a liking to confuse this new body so he had expected that she'd make fun of him and lead him somewhere else, but thankfully, the TARDIS was feeling generous today. It only took him three tries until he found it. The light pink door that was, at the moment, between the library and the kitchen.

"Rose?" he called softly, knocking on the door. He waited a few seconds before the knob twisted open and his companion looked at him groggily. Her eyes were puffy, as though she hadn't slept the night before.

Which, the Doctor guessed, she didn't. Having someone take over your body was definitely not fun. He'd learned that the hard way, unfortunately.

"Hello," he smiled, "Did I wake you? I can…um, wait a while if you'd like. I mean, I'm not sure if the TARDIS would let me find your room this quick again so I might arrive a few minutes after you'd like me to see you and…" he stopped at the look Rose was giving him, "Uh yeah, sorry, rambling again. This me seems to do that a lot."

His companion nodded slowly, looking at him uncertainly. Oh, this was awkward. She probably hadn't gotten used to seeing him with an all new face and a whole new personality yet.

"Yeah so…" he said, running a hand through his hair (a habit he'd taken to), "I could come by later if you're busy now, I suppose?"

Rose stared at him for a few seconds, then shook her head, "No, 's okay."

The Doctor stared at her, puzzled.

"I mean…you can, uh, say whatever you were sayin' earlier," Rose said quickly, "'M not busy."

"Oh, oh right, wee-eell, I was thinking maybe this would be a bit strange for you, you know. Seeing me like…" he gestured to himself, "This. And, I suppose, what happened earlier with Cassandra that it may have, um, overwhelmed you? Yeah. So…so I was thinking that you could decide where we'd go next, you know as, um, compensation."

An uncomfortable silence passed between the two. The Doctor, fiddling with his coat pockets and Rose staring away, thinking.

"Um, well?" he said, once he ran out of pockets. He decided that he'd need to fix this new coat. Make the pockets bigger on the inside or something.

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Rose said quietly, "That'd be okay, I s'pose."

"Yeah, good." The Doctor said, "I'll just…leave you now…get ready and whatnot."

"Okay." Rose agreed, backing into the room and shutting the door.

The Doctor puffed his cheeks and exhaled slowly. Of all things that he'd expected after his regeneration, awkwardness was the one he had been most dreading. He'd hoped that right after; they'd be back to normal. The Doctor and Rose Tyler in the TARDIS, Defenders of the Earth, the stuff of legends, best friends…he sighed and spun around, heading back for the console room...

But the TARDIS had other plans for him. He found himself trailing through an endless maze of hallways, all which led to nowhere. He tried opening the doors; maybe one of them would lead him somewhere, and he would be able to go somewhere from there, but the TARDIS apparently did not approve of that plan because every single door he had found led to a cupboard. The same one each time, he had noted.

"Ah, c'mon, old girl…" he groaned, patting the walls desperately. He grinned when he heard her hum in response as a new hallway materialized in the corner.

"Thanks," he said, running towards it lest she decide he wasn't worth of escape yet and close the exit. He swerved left and gasped as he crashed into something. His eyes snapped open as he breathed in a familiar scent that only associated with one thing.

The Doctor looked down at the little human being who had softened his fall and hastily got up. He outstretched his hand to assist her up.

"Ow." Rose murmured, reaching for his hand. Once they had both gotten over the initial shock, they faced each other, almost simultaneously, the Doctor noted.

"Sorry," the Doctor smiled, sheepily, "The TARDIS was playing tricks on me and I sort of…bolted for the nearest exit."

"Riiight," Rose said, brushing herself off. He met her eyes and she smiled hesitantly. He returned the gesture, a bit brighter.

"So you've decided where you'd like to go?" he said, leading her to the console room. She nodded, "Yeah."

"Alright!" the Doctor said, cheerily. He ran up to the engine of the machine and placed his hand on the little screen, ready to add coordinates of wherever she wanted to go, "Where to?"

Rose crossed her arms, "Here."

"Alright!" he grinned, flicking a black switch on the TARDIS controls, "Wait…what?"

"Here, I just want to stay here. Anything wrong with that?" she asked, coolly. The Doctor stared at her, lost in thought. Why would she want to stay here? Sure, he supposed, it had been a tiring couple of days, and she might have been put through a lot more stress than she was used to, and maybe…oh.

He began noticing the little things he wondered how he looked over before. She had dark bags under her eyes, she probably wasn't sleeping well, he thought, guiltily. Her composure wasn't the same as it was when he had met her. She looked more tired, more worn. He realized she barely had any rest for a few days.

It was nothing for a Time Lord, but for a human…he nodded, "No, nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all but…well, I was thinking…" he trailed off. Rose raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I was thinking that maybe, things have been a bit…rocky between us for…a relative amount of time," he paused; it hadn't been that long but… "I think ever since the, um, regeneration we've been getting off on the wrong foot and you know, with Cassandra taking over you and all that…" he glanced at her, warily, "You might think that I'm not trustworthy anymore but I'm still him, you know? I'm still him, just a bit different—"

Rose stared at him.

"Well, a lot different, but we've got some things in common," he said, "I still like bananas, still love the running…and I still care for you, Rose. Maybe you think that in this new body that maybe I'm completely different and rude and sideburn-y," his eyes lit as he noticed the corners of her lips twitched upward, "But no, I still protect my friends, yeah? And we're best mates, yeah?"

Rose smiled now, "The point, Doctor?"

"Well, the point is…maybe, if you'd like to have a free day that, maybe we could…spend it together? Just so we can, you know, patch things up?" he looked up, hopefully.

"Yeah," Rose said, nodding "That's…yeah, okay."

He grinned, "Great."

"Now, we're spending the whole day in the TARDIS," he said, taking a step down from the controls so that he was level with her, "Exploring."

"Yeah."

"And I bet there are tons of rooms in here I completely forgot about…" he said.

Rose grinned, "Yeah."

"And maybe a ton of new ones that I probably haven't seen yet."

"I bet."

They shared a grin before the Doctor took her hand and they dashed into the maze of hallways and rooms the TARDIS provided, ready to explore each one. After all, the best of adventures start at home, yeah?

Author's Note

This is my otp and I decided that it cannot be my otp if I haven't written anything about it, so here it is. If you haven't already figured out, this is basically what I think would've happened if, after New Earth, Rose made a different reaction to her new, new Doctor. I'm sorry if it seems a bit out-of-character, this is my first Doctor Who story and I don't really have much experience, starting the series only this month (I'm on season 6!).

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