.
Rose leaned against the doors she had just closed behind her, she sighed and tipped her head back against the wood.
"We have to talk about this" she spoke with her eye's closed.
"What do you need to know Rose?" he questioned.
"Everything" she replied "are we compatible… can we? She hesitated.
"Umm you mean progress onto a more intimate relationship?" The Doctor finished her sentence for her.
"Yes" she breathed out, relieved that she had not had to ask
"We need to talk, but not here" said the Doctor. He flicked a switch, pulled and pushed the pump and the Tardis rematerialised elsewhere. Striding over to the doors, the Doctor reached over behind her and opened them.
Rose followed him out into the street and into a café. He motioned her to sit down at a table overlooking shoppers in a busy street. It was too early for elevenses, so the café was virtually empty. They could talk in private but it was still public enough to allow them to be comfortable.
Rose replayed the moment that the row between them had got out of hand as she waited for him to sit down opposite her, he placed two cups of tea on the table. Then he pulled several packets of sugar and milk pots out of his pocket and placed them in the middle between them. Silently they sorted out the sugar and milk and raised their cups in a synchronised movement smiling at each other's unintentional mirroring behaviour.
Placing her cup back on the saucer whilst the Doctor took another sip of tea she began to speak. "I didn't mean to say those things, I do want this" she motioned between them "us, to be together and um…"
He waited and watched her blush.
"Doctor" she glanced away for a beat, looking out of the window, "you are not a father figure, and you know that, don't you?"
Now it was the Doctor's turn to interrupt, "I know, but .." he took a breath to compose his next words, "I'm alien Rose, I don't think you realise that things like" he wrinkled up his nose as he blushed "sex" he forced the word through his lips "will be…well….not quite what you expect" "There are things you need to understand about Timelords and you may be disappointed. I've seen and read about human mating habits, my people, we" he continued "considered mating to be primitive and we were evolving away from such base behaviour".
She raised her eyebrows.
"Rose" he spoke quietly "I have some idea of what it entails for you but really no idea how I can perform".
She gasped, "You're a virgin!"
He blushed even deeper. "Yes Rose" he spoke with his jaw clenched.
"On Gallifrey, reproduction was similar to what you humans call In Vitro fertilisation procedures on Earth, the foetus would be placed in what we would call a Loom, you would call it an artificial womb, I suppose."
"Oh" she murmured the disappointment in her voice, "so that means you don't or you can't?"
"A little bit of both" the Doctor replied wistfully. "Timelords, even with other Timelords, considered touching hands to be racy enough" he smiled "the thought of bare flesh is scandalous enough, let alone touching anyone or being touched"
Rose contemplated whilst she drank her tea and then looked at the Doctor with a curious expression, "so when you grabbed my hand and said run and later when you said about the planet moving and you could feel it?"
"Well, the first time was necessary to save your life and umm…" he blushed.
Her eyes widened in surprise, "You were copping a feel!" she exclaimed with a smirk on her face.
"Well umm" the Doctor stuttered blushing.
An embarrassed silence fell between them.
"So" Rose began "how do we go about this, I mean….I want touch and more…" she glanced over with a coy and nervous look.
"I don't know Rose" he spoke with trepidation in his voice. "We have a lot of cultural baggage, mostly mine to get through."
"Why, though? " Rose said "why did Timelords decide not to have sex? I mean there must have been a reason"
"I think" he replied, "that….we can but are conditioned not to"
"Can we try?" she spoke quietly so only he could hear, "we could try kissing and holding hands to start with and go on from there"
He reached over the table and grabbed her hand to pull her up. Their lips met over the now empty tea cups for a moment and then they both ran out of the door and back to the Tardis laughing.