*Disclaimer - I (sadly) do not own Doctor Who or any of the characters cited here from Doctor Who. I also do not own the Beatles or any of the references to their work cited here. I also do not own any of the other bands (or their lyrics) cited/mentioned here. The original plot, the original characters, and the overall idea for this story, however, are mine.
"A Hard Day's Night in Time and Space"
It had been a quiet day in the TARDIS. Really quiet. Scarily quiet. Rose was going mad with boredom for the first time ever since she met The Doctor, she thought, but that was nothing compared to what The Doctor was experiencing. He had been trying for hours to get Rose to agree to an adventure of some sort, ANY sort, and he found himself in the unusual position of exasperation with Rose. Anything he would offer (56th century space stations, giant robots in deep space, the planet Klexmontorian Delta Nine-Nine with it's purple skies, blue trees, and six-winged birds), she would simply say "Oh, I dunno, Doctor...", and sigh.
The Doctor knew what her problem was. He could sense it. She was homesick, a feeling that he was very familiar with. He had it almost constantly, but his illness could never be cured. Though he tried to push thoughts of Gallifrey from his mind when Rose was with him. She was the only person who could make him feel so very at home wherever they were.
But her homesickness had caused them both to be bored. Very bored just sitting in the TARDIS. Though it barely made sense for this to be the case, when the magic blue box was one of the most wonderous and magnificent things to exist in the universe. But nevertheless.
So finally, after trying to entice his favorite blonde with numerous outlandish offers of preposterous adventures, he gave up.
The Doctor sighed softly as he stepped away from the controls on the console, and turned to the beat-up bench seat apparently taken from an old car where Rose sat. He ran his long fingers through his chocolate-brown hair (making it stand even more up in the air than usual), and sat down beside Rose, who had her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes casually scanning the ceiling.
"Sorry, I never thought I would ask this question, but are you... Are you actually bored?", The Doctor asked, straining to look into her eyes through the obscuring layer of straight blonde hair currently flapped over them.
Rose raised her brown eyes to look at him.
"Are you?".
"Well,", retorted The Doctor, canting his head slightly. He twisted his jaw. "Yeah.".
"What are we going to do about it?".
"I dunno, I asked you if you wanted to see a 56th century space station, and you said 'Oh, I dunno,', said The Doctor, fidgeting with his tie.
"But - I just dunno,", said Rose with a heavy sigh.
"What do either of us know? We've both said 'I dunno' at least ten times today.".
"I don't know, Doctor, I just-", she stopped herself. The Doctor looked at her and raised his eyebrows a little. The both laughed lightly after a moment.
"I just feel like... I'm missing home. A bit,", she said.
They just listened to the hum of the TARDIS for a few seconds.
Then, with a start, The Doctor's be-Conversed feet came down on the grated floor with a 'smack'.
"Gosh,", said Rose upon seeing The Doctor fly to his feet.
"I've got a brilliant idea!", he said smiling wide.
"What?", said Rose, his contagious grin starting to appear on her own lips.
"I'm sorry, Miss Tyler, but I don't believe you've ever been familiarized with the in-flight entertainment of this vessel,", he said, extending his hand towards her.
Rose's smile filled out, and she grabbed his hand, and in a flash, they were trotting down the corridors of the TARDIS.
With many a twist and turn in the long passageway that The Doctor took her on, they finally came to a door, though it wasn't a typical space-ship-type door. It was unusually... common. It was a regular wooden door that one might find in an actual normal house on Earth. The Doctor turned the brass knob, and showed Rose in.
Rose's jaw dropped.
There were guitars and amplifiers, violins and cellos, trombones and French horns, drums of all kinds, and some rather strange musical instruments (no doubt from Earth's future). In the middle of the jam-packed huge room, there was a grand piano.
"Ahhhh,", breathed Rose, taking it all in.
"Come on,", said The Doctor, leading her through the room.
Rose blindly followed the pull of his hand, her mouth still gaping.
On the other side of the room, there was another wooden door, and through it they went into a smaller room. If the first music room was grand, this one was just plain cool.
"Here, Miss Tyler, you will find all sorts of neat musical doo-dads from your very own planet,", The Doctor smiled a little to see Rose looking wide-eyed at all the wonders in the room.
On the right side of the room, there was a jukebox, shiny and just like new. On the left side of the room, there were several racks of cassette and eight-track tapes and a tape player wired to speakers. But on the far side of the room was the real showpiece. There stood on a stand directly in front of Rose a vintage 1940s gramophone, complete with bronze horn, twisting nobly into the air. On either side there stood tables, and on their tops were boxes completely teeming with vinyl records.
Rose scuttled across the room immediately, and The Doctor smiled with satisfaction.
"Oh, my God, Doctor,", she said, shuffling through the dozens and dozens of titles. "I didn't know you were so into rock!", she said, holding up a battered copy of Led Zeppelin's 'Houses of the Holy', and in her other hand an equally well-loved copy of 'Dark Side of the Moon'.
"That one was a gift,", said the Doctor, pointing to the Led album. "Robert practically begged me to take that one,", said The Doctor.
"Robert...?", said Rose. "Robert Plant?", she almost whispered, but she could see that The Doctor was already preparing to give her *the cough* that meant "I'm too modest to talk about this". Rose blinked and moved on.
She kept thumbing through the records, finding all kinds of cool things and names of singers she had only ever heard her mother mention. Then, she noticed an old-fashioned type suitcase, slightly battered. She reached over and opened it, half expecting it to be a portable record player. But it wasn't.
Rose's jaw dropped yet again.
Inside the suitcase were several LPs and a few singles, all by one artist. The Beatles. Rose immediately recognized the iconic image on the cover of one of the records on top; The Fab Four crossing a very, very famous street. There was another record that was near the top, with retro-type print in the top left corner that read "Rubber Soul". But that wasn't all. As she flipped it over to look at the back, she immediately noticed some scrawled writing; Rose only had to strain a little to make out the words: "Good luck, Paul McCartney" , and just to the right of that, "Cheers, Ringo Starr".
Rose squawked.
"And the inside jacket,", said The Doctor, whom she was now aware was looking over her shoulder.
She very, very carefully pried the cardboard sleeve open, and out gently slipped the LP in it's paper jacket.
"All the best, George Harrison".
Rose was now almost afraid to touch any part of what had just come out of the suitcase.
"What about Lennon?".
"Oh, we got chatting, and before you know it, we forgot all about the record,", said The Doctor, casually swaying from side to side, his hands in the pockets of his brown pinstriped trousers.
Rose suddenly felt like her brain was going to explode.
"HAAA, Oh, my God, Doctor!", she exclaimed, handing the record over, the full realization setting in.
He started giggling, and Rose covered her mouth with both hands and took a step back.
"I'm guessing you're a fan?".
"God, yeah! I mean, my mum never really like anything but Neil Diamond, so she never liked them,", Rose stopped and made a face. The Doctor chuckled.
"But anyway, my aunt was a HUGE fan, and she was a teenager during Beatlemania, and she actually went to one of their shows and... well, she ripped off a bit of Ringo's blazer and she fainted during the show because she still swears to this day that Paul looked directly at her. She has the shred of Ringo's blazer framed on her mantlepiece to this day. But anyway, when I was over at their house one time years ago now, she showed me some of their music, and... I fell in love,", gushed Rose.
"Really? 'Cause I thought you were one of those 90s music people, like... Madonna, or whatever,", said The Doctor, sticking out his tongue a little and cringing.
"No! Why didn't you just ask me? We could've been rocking out together!", she said, and they were both laughing out loud by then.
"Well, why don't we make up for lost time?", said The Doctor, slipping a 45 out of the case and popping it on the gramophone.
"Well she was just seventeen, you know what I mean, but the way she looked was way beyond compare," the speakers sang within seconds.
The Doctor whisked Rose to the middle of the room, and before either of them knew it, they were dancing like idiots, bopping their heads and swaying from side to side as was the fashion to do back in the day.
"Well, my heart went boom, when I crossed that room, and I held her hand in mIIINNE".
The Doctor twirled Rose over and over across the room until Rose thought she was getting dizzy.
"Now I'll never dance with another, *OOOOO* since I saw her standing there, since I saw her standing there, well, since I saw her standing there".
The Doctor finished off the number with a very deep dip that left Rose's hair lightly brushing the floor.
When he pulled her back up into his chest, they were both breathless and giggling almost hysterically.
"So what do you say?", The Doctor said, looking mischievously down into Rose's eyes.
"To what?".
"Oh, come on. I've got a time machine. We've got the want-to. I'm sure the boys wouldn't mind us popping in.".
Rose's mouth fell open yet again, and she twisted her jaw.
"Oh. My. God. You're not suggesting...?".
"Sure! I've regenerated since I've last seen them. They'll never recognize me. Not unless I wear a vegetable on my lapel again...", said The Doctor, his eyes trailing off.
Rose just smiled up at him, completely ignoring this strange reference.
"So. Is that a yes?".
"Doctor,", she said timidly, a smile unsuppressable on her face, her finger motioning him closer to listen. He bent down and turned his ear towards her.
"YES! I WANT TO MEET THE BEATLES!", she exclaimed laughing, and he rared back, his eardrum popping. Though it didn't make him angry. Not at all. They were about to go on an adventure.