Disclaimer: Despite bribing the BBC and Russell T. Davies with chocolates and sundry other goodies, they have still refused to give me ownership of Doctor Who...or of David Tennant.
Rose sat contentedly in the jump seat next to the TARDIS console, thinking over the events of the past few days. After the Doctor had once again saved the universe and defeated Davros, the planets had all returned to their proper place in time and space. It had been really hard returning Donna to her home, and Rose was sad that she wouldn't have the opportunity to get to know her better. Her mum had returned to Pete and their son, but Mickey…Mickey had decided to stay here and join Jack's team. Jake had not been too pleased with that decision, but Mickey pointed out that they could see each other easily enough now that they knew how to jump between worlds. Rose smiled and chuckled to herself at the Doctor's reaction to the sweet kiss that had passed between Jake and Mickey when they said goodbye. Rose had promised to visit her mum and Pete, and then stepped into the TARDIS and back into the Doctor's arms and life. Then, she had slept for a good 12 hours straight.
When she woke up, she had wandered into the console room to find the Doctor lying underneath the console, alternating between growling at his ship, speaking soothingly to her, and singing (in a thick Scottish accent, no less) some song about walking five hundred miles. He must have sensed she was there, because he slid out and looked up at her, a huge grin on his face.
"Rose! Hello, sleepy head! I see you found your old room with no problem. She kept it ready for you, my old girl," he said, patting the side of the console fondly. "Guess she knew something I didn't."
Rose smiled, and ran a hand fondly over the cracked leather of the seat she sat on and looked around. She had waited and worked so long for this…and now, here she was. Sure, she wasn't a wide eyed young girl anymore, but she thought that the 5 years she had spent working with the alternate Torchwood had been worth it. She was finally with her Doctor. She felt his eyes on her, and turned her head to look at him, a twinkle in her eye. He continued to grin at her, his eyes sliding all over her, his happiness obvious even to the thickest person on the planet.
"Yeah, she did. 'Course, my toothpaste was dried out, and there was no shampoo in the bathroom, but the bed was still comfortable," Rose replied. She looked at the Doctor and softly said, "I had expected it to be quite dusty, but it was very clean. And, I found a few articles of clothing that weren't mine…like, a pair of red trainers, a blue tie, and a certain brown suit jacket."
The Doctor shifted a little where he sat on the floor of the console room, a slight pink tint suddenly appearing on his ears. The grin had fallen from his face, and he opened his mouth and closed it a couple of times, suddenly struck a little bit speechless. Rose watched him for a few moments, and then grinned, her tongue sticking out between her teeth, quite chuffed with herself that she had made him have to search for words. Then, her heart almost broke all over again with his next words.
"I, um…well, you know I don't really need to sleep much, superior Time Lord physiology and such…but…welllll…" he started out saying, with a bit of a cheeky tone, but then he looked up at her, the pain and loss and loneliness sharp in his deep brown eyes. "I missed you," he said softly, his voice low and gruff.
Rose slid off the seat and down to the floor next to the Doctor. She reached a hand out and gently touched his cheek. His eyes fluttered closed and he breathed out a sigh at her touch. "I missed you, too….my Doctor. But I'm here. I'm really, really here. I promised you forever. I just had to…take a bit of a side trip on the way there," she told him.
The Doctor opened his eyes and speared her with a look that burned right through her. Rose had a sudden flashback to Bad Wolf Bay, and the look on his face after she had told him she loved him. It was that look again, but multiplied. The breath caught in her throat, and she was suddenly aware of how close they were. She felt his fingers touch her cheek, and watched his face becoming larger as he moved closer to her. Her eyes drifted shut just before his lips tentatively brushed softly against her own. It was a short kiss, no more than a second, and felt like a feather against her mouth. But the depth of feeling behind it was shocking. She knew the Doctor would probably never admit out loud that he loved her, that he needed her, at least not in those exact words, but she knew.
He pulled back from her, a small smile on his face, his fingers tracing over her cheek. He suddenly jumped to his feet. He reached down a hand and pulled her to her feet, his mouth already going a mile a minute.
"So, Rose! First trip back on the TARDIS! Where do you want to go, hmm? New Earth? Oh, we could go check in on Novice Haame! Or, we never did actually make it to Barcelona, did we? Oh! I know! Shakespeare! Lovely chap, you'd like him! 'Course, that might mean running into old Lizzie the First, and I still don't know what I did to upset her….still, I have been promising you Shakespeare…."
Rose sat back down on the seat, and watched her Doctor jumping around the console, pressing buttons and flipping levers, his eyes going wide as he talked about upsetting Elizabeth I. She smiled at him, her tongue again pressing between her teeth, and she couldn't help the laugh that escaped. He looked over at her, his hand rubbing the back of his neck, and he took a moment to smile at her, and he suddenly burst out laughing as well. The hum of the TARDIS went up in pitch, and seemed to warble a little, almost as if she were laughing herself.
"Oy, Doctor, you have no idea how happy I am to be home…the telly programs over there were bloody awful. The biggest hit show was something called 'Professor What'…."
A/N: This was meant to be humorous, as it started off with a plot bunny named Professor What, and was going to comment on the Doctor's geek chic factor, but somehow, it changed into 10/Rose fluff. I'm considering making this into a longer story, with a few more chapters. Whatcha think?