Title: Nine Things Rose Tyler Hates About Travelling With The Doctor And One Thing She Loves
Rating: Rated MA to be on the safe side.
Summary: Travelling with the Doctor is the best time Rose has ever had, but it's not always perfect. Set during series two, 10/Rose.
A/N: Generally taking on two fics when you're busy is a bad plan, but I guess the idea for this just appeared into my head and I really wanted to write it. It started out as being short, but then I just kept writing, so I've decided to break it down into chapters. It's set during series 2 and most of the mini-ficlets don't have a definite time period, so they can happen whenever you want them to. Any reviews and comments are much appreciated as they make me smile :-)
If you like my writing but want more of a plot, then have a look at my other fic: Fractured Worlds.
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and associated characters are not mine and I'm making no profit from this.
xxx
1. Having to justify almost monthly visits to a 21st century Earth supermarket…
'You know,' said the Doctor conversationally, picking up a bottle of shampoo and sniffing it, 'I can understand the er… feminine hygiene products; in fact, I'm not going to go any further down that route because I've already said too much. But I've never really got hair dye, I mean why? Your roots seem a perfectly respectable colour to me!'
Rose was crouched on the floor looking at the bottom shelf trying to choose between two different brands. She looked up at him, an eyebrow raised.
'Oh, you know,' she said vaguely. 'Blondes have more fun.' The Doctor frowned and Rose looked away, silently cursing. Why had she said that?
'They do?' said the Doctor, sounding genuinely surprised. 'Well I suppose when you're trying to hide in the middle of the night from various alien menaces they're far more likely to spot blonde hair than darker hair and being chased all over London, thirteenth century Nepal or the planet of Takloon does have its merits. Not always exactly fun though. The Rezzaput did try to bite your head off until the Takloonians took him down.'
Rose sighed, picked up the one she'd decided on, threw it in the basket that the Doctor was carrying and picked out a couple of bottles of her favourite shampoo.
'It's a saying,' she said. 'Surely you've heard it before now?'
The Doctor grinned.
'Course I have, but I still think it's a rather silly kind of saying. The type of fun it is no doubt referring to, well, any self-respecting male wouldn't look at you and worry about your hair colour! You're pretty all over, with or without hydrogen peroxide!' Rose blushed, damn him for being able to do that so easily!
'You can talk, anyway,' she said. 'You'd never go changing how you look!'
'That, Rose Tyler, is not quite the same as dying your hair and you know it!' he said, although he was still smiling. 'Maybe I should see what I look like ginger…'
'No!' said Rose. 'Absolutely not, you look fine how you are.'
The Doctor was still laughing as she propelled him out of the hair care aisle and to the tills.
2. The way that it makes going to see her mum so complicated…
'Oi, Rose! Rose Tyler!' Rose turned around to see Shareen running up to her. She'd just taken out the rubbish and was about to head back upstairs to her mother's flat. 'I was just passing and I thought I recognised you! It's been years, Sugar, Jackie said you were travelling but she never said where! You coulda sent a postcard!'
Rose grinned, it had been years, although a different number for her than for Shareen.
'Sorry,' she said, with a bit of a shrug. 'I guess I've just been busy, we're always on our feet, you know.'
'Where ya been?' asked Shareen but Rose was saved from answering that by a familiar voice from just inside the block of flats.
'Rose! Jackie said I should check you hadn't been abducted by aliens, she seemed to think it was likely for some reason!' The Doctor appeared through the door, with his usual gorgeous smile. Then he noticed Shareen. 'Oh hello!' he said, extending and hand and thoroughly shaking hers. 'I'm the Doctor,' he added.
'I'm Shareen,' she said, staring at him.
'Ah, Rose's friend, she did mention you a couple of times!' The Doctor was still smiling, but Rose got the distinct impression he was poised to run away at any minute. He seemed to be good with people, well, with every person in the universe except her friends and family.
'I'm just off down to the pub to meet up with the gang,' said Shareen. 'You two should come.'
'Nah,' said Rose. 'We're off again soon, mum won't be impressed if we don't spend this evening with her.'
'Oh come on Rose, it's been ages! And they've all never met him!' Shareen grabbed Rose's arm and pulled her along. Rose sighed, accepting the inevitable, and tossed her phone to the Doctor.
'Text mum, would you?' she asked and the Doctor began to fiddle with the phone, almost uncertainly. Rose resisted the temptation to giggle; mobile phones were probably too primitive for him.
'So go on then,' muttered Shareen, the Doctor now safely occupied. 'Spill! Where'd you meet him? What's he like in bed? Has he got a car?'
'Er… we just sort of bumped into each other and hit it off straight away,' said Rose, which was pretty much the truth. She was full aware that no matter how quiet Shareen thought she was being, the Doctor had far better hearing that humans and was probably listening to every word.
'Ah, come on Rose, he's such a cutie, let's hear the dirt!' demanded Shareen, although at a whisper. 'Why so private? You told me all about Mickey, and Jimmie, and that lad you met in that club when we were really drunk… we never did find out his name, did we?'
Rose was saved, yet again by the Doctor, who caught up with them and gave her back her phone.
'So, Shareen,' he said, pretending as though he hadn't heard about the bloke from the club. 'What do you do?'
'I work at a designer boutique in central London,' replied Shareen. 'Got a great staff discount.' Although not enough wages to afford the clothes, thought Rose, she'd been there and done that and still had sympathy.
They arrived at the pub and were greeted by a chorus. Rose peered around the group that were crowded around a couple of tables. She knew most of them, but that was possibly a bad thing because it meant a lot of explaining to do.
'This is Rose and her lovely new boyfriend er… what did you say your name was?'
'John,' said the Doctor, accepting the inevitable. Rose sat next to him and prepared herself as her old friends began to question them. Shareen had bought them both a drink so she sat back and sipped it while the Doctor did most of the talking; he was good at that anyway.
'Oh we travel everywhere and anywhere that needs help,' he said. 'My er… father did lots of charity work, but he's injured his back so he can't do much any more so I do it for him. Rose ended up part of a group I was running – oh, did she not tell you she'd put her name down to do some work? – and we hit it off. Now we stick together when we do everything.' Rose was impressed with how quickly he'd put together a cover story.
Shareen poked her on the arm, and gestured for her to shuffle her chair away from the Doctor and towards her and the four other girls at the end of the table. Ten minutes later she had admitted that yes, John had a massive cock and yes, they had fantastically awesome sex at least twice a week even when they were staying in tents in an earthquake zone and yes, he did have lots of money but he spent most of it on charity and yes, they'd been together long enough that of course she was wishing he'd propose. Sometimes, she thought, with an internal sigh, you just had to tell them what they want to hear. She was fairly certain she'd managed to make it all sound genuine too.
Not that she didn't occasionally wish it was true…
She finished her drink and dragged Shareen up to the bar to get another one.
'You guys seem perfect for each other,' Shareen said. 'Wish I could meet someone like that.' Rose opened her mouth to reply but before she could she heard someone stagger up behind her and she turned to see a rather drunk Jimmie Stone. Ah, the ex that had nearly ruined her life, great, now she was remembering why she avoided this pub. He was still handsome, she supposed, but the sight of him had not made her stomach flip because she still fancied him, more out of fear. He'd bullied her then kicked her out and left her eight hundred quid in debt.
'Yeah, right,' he said. 'The stupid slut's probably opened her legs for everything she's seen.' The Doctor suddenly stood up and was stalking over to the bar where the three of them stood. Rose could see the look of anger on his face, but she looked back at Danny and laughed suddenly.
He was six foot ten, and well muscled. The Slitheen were over seven foot with huge claws and they hunted people for fun. There was one of him. There had been millions of Daleks. She'd seen the end of the world, she'd met Charles Dickens and she'd stood up to the Sycorax. How could she be afraid of a silly ex-boyfriend who'd pushed her around when she was sixteen?
The Doctor reached them.
'And you're her wonderful new boyfriend. I hope you know she's a fucking slut.'
'Jimmie, sweetheart,' said Rose. 'When you hit puberty and grow some balls, then you can some back and try to be clever, until then, just piss off and run back to mummy, there's a good boy.' She was surprised at herself, and both Shareen and the Doctor looked shocked too, she assumed it must be the alcohol talking, she didn't drink much these days so maybe having that one without dinner had been a bit hasty.
'You're such a fucking slut!' Rose couldn't help but stare, maybe she was used to slightly smarter bad guys. She hadn't cheated on him, but he'd grown so paranoid that she had towards the end and apparently there was still no convincing him otherwise.
'Well maybe if you hadn't been so awful in bed I wouldn't have had to!' she retorted, figuring she might as well use it against him.
'You seemed to enjoy it when we were together,' he said, with a smirk. 'Kept asking for more.'
'I was faking,' she said, with a casual shrug. 'Oh! Oh God, Jimmie! Faster, harder! Oh… God! Does that sound familiar?' The Doctor was staring at her, open mouthed and she winked at him. Jimmie shoved her hard in the shoulder and she stumbled backward and was caught by Shareen. It possibly would have got worse for her had the Doctor not punched him.
He tossed the Sonic Screwdriver at Rose and shouted.
'Setting 5649-B! And don't point it at your friends!' As she fiddled with the screwdriver hurriedly Rose noticed the Doctor was not fighting so much as flailing, more of an attention grabber and a distraction, waiting for Rose to sort it out. Jimmie managed to land only one effective punch, and the Doctor went flying, but Rose managed to point the screwdriver at Jimmie and the oddest expression appeared on his face.
'What the fuck?' he managed, and he suddenly ran out of the pub.
She hauled the Doctor to his feet, he was looking a bit dazed but otherwise all right.
'I say we should be off now!' he said brightly. 'Cheerio everyone! Been lovely meeting you! Hope to see you all again soon!' Everyone in the pub was silent and staring at him. The barman was half way through making a call to the police.
The Doctor put his arm around Rose and hurriedly steered her out of the pub and took the screwdriver back.
'Are you all right?' she asked him, worried.
'Tis but a flesh wound!' he said, with a wink. 'You know I was with him when he penned that, but I digress. This is going to be the first black eye I've got from a pub brawl! Nine hundred years throughout time and space and I've never been beat up in a pub before. I haven't lived, have I?' Rose looked at him, but decided not to comment, he just grinned at her. They continued walking, his arm still around her.
'What was the Sonic Screwdriver setting?' she asked.
'Oh, resonant frequency of the human bowel,' he said casually. They reached the Powell Estate and the TARDIS and he turned and faced her, looking serious for once. 'Are you ok? I mean, he was a nasty lad and he hit you but I know you'll heal. You certainly told him where to go; with certain style, I might add; but I know ex boyfriends can be difficult.'
She smiled at him.
'You know what? I'm fine. When we broke up it was the end of the world for me, but now I've actually seen the end of the world, well, what can he possibly say or do?' The Doctor grinned and hugged her.
'So where do you want to go next?' he asked. 'After we've said farewell to your mother of course!'
'I don't know,' said Rose. 'Somewhere exciting!' They turned to walk up to her flat, still arm in arm.
'So…' said the Doctor. 'I'm that good in bed, am I?' She punched him lightly in the arm and laughed.
'Shut up, you!' He grinned and kissed her forehead.
'Come on, Rose Tyler, there's a whole universe waiting!'