"Rose, wake up!"
"Ugh, John, what? It's like," Rose paused to look at her clock, "one-thirty in the morning."
"No, it's one-thirty-seven! And you know what that means!" said John-that's what they had decided to call him. He said if they called both him and the original 'The Doctor' it could get confusing. Rose privately thought that was stupid. There are more 'Johns' than 'Doctors,' after all, but it clearly wasn't something he was willing to see sense on.
"No, I don't."
"The TARDIS is grown up! It's ready!"
"What? I asked yesterday and you said it would be at least two more months!"
"You were asking time parameters about the creation of a time machine, you deserved a ridiculous answer."
"It's not really a time machine, though, is it? I mean, if you grow it. It's organic," Rose said reasonably. She sat up in bed and looked over at him. He was wearing long pajama pants and a T-shirt. A different one, she noticed, than he had gone to bed in. She decided not to question it.
He was standing at the foot of the bed and as soon as she had pulled herself into an upright position he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the bed.
"I'm not dressed!" She was wearing a nightie, but that really wasn't the point. Surely she couldn't break in a new TARDIS in her pajamas!
"Ehh, the TARDIS doesn't care!" Apparently she could. Well then.
Running downstairs had woken her up and the excitement was infectious. Rose was giggling by the time they reached the car. She had to run back in for the keys, John never remembered them. It was a thirty minute drive to the coral usually, but there wasn't a car on the road so they made it there in twenty. She and John ran out of the car without bothering to lock it behind them.
They had found a perfect cave for it, big and hidden with a natural pond. When she walked in, the first thing she noticed was how cold the air suddenly was. Rose rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms.
"Yeah, it's taking in energy," said John. "And here she is!"
Maybe in the back of her mind, Rose knew that the new TARDIS wouldn't be the same old police box she had loved. Still, she had trouble picturing it as anything else. John, however, was beaming at a completely empty cave wall.
"John," she said, "there's nothing there." Rose knew there was, it wasn't like John was wrong. But he had clearly forgotten the part where he had to explain things to her.
"No, it isn't," he said quietly, "Here, feel." He took her hand and put it against the cave wall. Beneath it, she could feel the rock humming faintly. Rose smiled.
John reached out and pushed on the wall. A door slid open automatically. It still looked dark inside, but Rose was certain now. This was the TARDIS. Their brand-new TARDIS.
It was rather dark inside. The console room was also the only room and the walls were white and bare.
"We'll have to customize her, of course," said John. He walked in a circle and ran his hands over the wall.
Rose smiled. She loved that. We'll, he had said. Including her. It wasn't him making decision and her running after him like it used to be. They had started over together. Now they seemed a little more equal. She helped him as much as he helped her. They worked together. That, Rose thought, was perfect.
"That'll come later, of course. We oughta break her in! Where to first?"