Disclaimer: Still not mine.
AN: This so started out in another direction, and then it ended up here. I'm incredibly sorry.
She knew he hadn't meant to strand them in the town during a blizzard. He never meant to do anything, but always ended up doing it anyways. At least it wasn't twelve months late or Aberdeen.
Still, this town, and she's willing to use the term lightly, wasn't exactly the place she wanted to ride out what the locals had kindly told them would be a two to three day blizzard; if they're lucky. For one, there's no concept of central heating, though the fires they burn out of coal do actually keep the rooms nice and cozy, for the rooms that there's a fireplace in. The rest of them are freezing and drafty when she's near the windows and doors, and even though the Doctor may be immune to cold temperatures, she's a Londoner and winter isn't exactly harsh where she's from.
The local tavern has let them a room, more out of pity, she thinks, than anything else. They'd been in town only two hours when someone, and Rose can't rightly remember who, announced there was a storm coming in. The Doctor had, of course, decided that would be the perfect time to trek back to the TARDIS on the other side of town. But, because their luck just ran like that, "a storm coming in" was in this town the definition of "a storm is already here". The temperature had been cold when they'd landed. Five minutes outside in harsh winds and Rose had begged to go back inside and wait until it had blown over. Only once they were back in the tavern had she learned that that would be two to three days' wait. The tavern owner had shown them to a room, told them they could stay till the storm was over, and asked if perhaps the 'young miss' wouldn't mind a cup of something hot, since she was looking a little blue?
The Doctor had immediately gone all concerned and apologizing and bundled her up in a blanket from the bed before practically shoving her down by the fireplace (which the owner had kindly lit as soon as he'd shown them the room). A few minutes later Rose was feeling warm enough to think the entire situation a bit funny.
Honestly, stuck in a little town in twentieth century northern Canada and snowed in. Maybe this was up there with twelve months and Aberdeen. Or the TARDIS was having a lark. Typical.
Once she'd stopped shivering they returned to the tavern below and Rose downed a mug of something halfway between herbal tea and sugar water (either way it was hot) and felt much better about the whole thing afterwards.
They managed to amuse themselves with the local gossip and such (others having sought refuge at the tavern when the storm hit) for a few hours. But once dinner wrapped up boredom set in.
"Sure we can't make the far side of town?" The Doctor asked the tavern owner.
"Not a chance. Unless you'd like the little miss to turn blue for good."
The Doctor didn't seem to quite know what to do with that answer. "Right then. Suppose we're here for a few days. What do you, you know, do?"
"Ah. Well, there's enough people around I got business to attend to. The others, well, they eat, they drink, and they talk. What they always do. You? Not sure."
Rose smiled. "What?" The Doctor looked at her.
"Just the thought of you doing nothin' for a few days. Don't think I can quite imagine that."
"I'll have you know I am perfectly capable of 'doing nothing' as you so put it. Genius me; I can get by just sitting around using this big brain of mine. Come up will all sorts of ideas."
Rose looked unconvinced. "I'm going to bed."
"Alright. Night."
"Night." And with that she disappeared back upstairs.
The Doctor surveyed the tavern. Him, the owner, and five other gentlemen. For three days.
"Don't suppose you got anything I can do for the night?"
The owner blinked at him. "Sleep?"
"I don't sleep."
"Well, now, that's a bit of a problem, ain't it? You any good at fixing things?"
"Depends on what things," he sighed. If there was nothing else…
"I've got this electric cooker bought awhile back. Worked fine for a bit, but then it broke and I ain't good at fixing things."
"Electric cooker?" He was never going to survive this.
"Faster than the coal stove."
The Doctor sighed the long suffering sigh of a genius reduced to fixing a cooker. "Of course it is. Alright, show me."
When morning, or the bleak white-grey that passed for morning, dawned he went upstairs to wake Rose.
"I'm going to get the TARDIS and bring her here. I'll park her out back and we can run the five steps."
She smiled indulgently at him, still half asleep. "And if you miss?"
"I won't," he replied, affronted. Honestly, it wasn't every time.
"And if you do?"
He scowled at her. "Rose, I can't stay here another two days. I'll go mad."
She muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "too late". "Downtime. Not all bad, yeah? I could use a few days rest."
"I couldn't. I don't need rest. I need…to go somewhere. I'll go get the TARDIS. I promise I won't miss."
She stared at him. Then she sighed. "Fine."
He grinned at her and practically rushed for the door. "But if you do miss, so help me God…"
"I've no doubt."
Four hours later, having eaten breakfast, helped the owner cook lunch on the now working cooker, and exhausted the rest of the town gossip with the other storm refugees, she allowed herself to start worrying.
A day later she allowed herself to start panicking.
The next morning, when she rose to bright blue (startlingly bright blue) sky and dazzlingly snow in drifts higher than she was, she allowed herself, finally, to go crazy. Trudging through the white stuff was possible only because it was compact, hard and she weighed little. It still took her nearly thirty minutes to reach the other end of town.
The TARDIS, roof all that was visible above the snow, was still there.
Having already gone crazy, Rose returned to full-on, bone chilling, panic.
The first thought that popped into her head was that the Doctor had succumb to the temperature or the storm (or both) and fallen and been buried under the subsequent two days of constant snowfall. That thought was bad because her mind helpfully supplied that even superior biology didn't survive things like that.
Second option was that he hadn't even made it to the TARDIS and ended up taking refuge somewhere. That begged the question of why he hadn't returned to the tavern this morning, since the storm had been over since before dawn.
She should go back to the tavern. If he had holed up somewhere he'd either return or someone would find him. If that didn't happen, then... Oh God.
She returned to the tavern. "Where's your friend been then? Holed up somewhere down the road? Not sure why he left anyways."
Explaining that they'd arrived by spaceship hadn't been on the priority list. Staying with friends sounded much better, if anyone could be considered sane who travelled all the way to northern Canada in the winter to 'stay with friends'.
"He's missing."
"Oh. Well, aye, that ain't good. Didn't make it to your friend's house?"
Rose shook her head dejectedly. "If he'd stopped somewhere along the way, he'd be back by now, yeah? I mean, storm blew through hours ago."
"Probably. Still…" he seemed to consider what he was about to say. "I'll go out with you. See if we can't find someplace he might have holed up. Not too many options down the main road out of town; mostly houses. We'll ask around."
"Thanks," Rose said, because she wasn't sure what else to say.
Two hours of searching the entire road out to the TARDIS and they found nothing. The tavern owner had been right, it was mostly occupied houses and no one knew anything. Panic had given way to madness again, and Rose found, amazingly, that she just had enough mind left to worry about what the hell she was going to do now.
"You could check your friend's house again. Maybe he's turned up."
"No, he would have headed to the tavern instead. He'd want to make sure I was alright," she knew that. She needed to get into the TARDIS, which would be interesting buried in 5 feet of snow. And she couldn't exactly ask for help.
"Thanks Bobbie. I appreciate your help. Best get back to your tavern though, yeah, in case of customers?"
"You sure?" She nodded. "Well, alright then, but if you need something else, you come find me, kay?"
"Yeah. Ta." She watched him trudge back through the snow, more miserable then she'd ever been in her life.
She was frozen near solid by the time she managed to shovel enough snow out of the way with her hands to reach the keyhole. Not caring about the two feet of snow that tumbled inside as she pushed the door open to climbed down into the warm interior.
"Oh, hey."
Startled speechless she lost her footing on the last step and slid forwards to land in a heap of snow and flailing limbs on the grating.
"What? How?"
"Oh, well, about that." He looked sheepish. "Snow was a bit deeper than I thought by the time I got out here, and the TARDIS," he stroked the consol "didn't much feel like moving. I tried to encourage her. For hours. And then the storm was worse and I couldn't even see where I was going. Figured you'd be safe in the tavern."
She couldn't figure out what to say first. Finally, incredulously, she settled for "the storm's been over for hours."
"Oh, has it?" He looked a bit guilty.
"Yes!"
"Sorry about that then. I was busy with repairs. Must have forgotten to check for awhile."
Frustration, anger, and two days of near-blinding panic were the only things responsible for her sheer loss of control. "I waited two days. I was terrified! I thought you were dead!"
"Oh." The look on his face said he clearly hadn't considered that option. "Sorry."
She climbed to her feet, slammed the door behind her, which wasn't nearly so satisfying when it was impeded by a pile of snow, and stormed through the control room towards the nearest shower.
"I'm sorry!" He called after her. "You were the one wanted snow," he muttered. "Beach. Tropical. Hawaii; that's nice, never been there before. Yes, that'll do." He stared accusingly at the pile of snow by the door, slowly melting through the grating to the floor below. "Oh, now I'm going to have to clean that up."
The perception of laughter trickled through his head. "Oh, don't think you're getting off lightly this time. You brought us here. I was aiming for a good old Winterlude and skating on the Rideau Canal. Hawaii is the least you can do for Rose."
The TARDIS sounded affronted. Great, now both his girls were mad at him. Sighing, he went to check on Rose and tell her to plan for sun, warmth and lots of shopping. He was probably going to be paying for this for quite awhile.