Rose quietly watched over the
strange, yet far too familiar blue suited
man as he sprawled
bonelessly on the couch. Utterly, unexpectedly
exhausted, a deep
and very human slumber had overtaken him while he
waited for Rose
to emerge from her bedroom. She'd planned to show him
the guest
room, not ready to share this brand new life quite so soon or
so
completely. Although Rose was tempted to let her mother deal with
the
Doctor's not-quite clone, she decided she should, and she would
--
take responsibility for this...gift she'd been
given.
Presently, her gift stirred, rearranging himself into
what she hoped was
a more comfortable position. Rose had to laugh
when he began snoring a
moment later. "I knew it!" She
whispered, remembering a conversation
they'd had -- well, she and
the "real" Doctor -- when he'd woken her up
one morning,
and told her she'd been snoring. She'd told him he was
daft, and
that it must have been him waking himself up, though he'd
insisted
he hadn't even been sleeping. She supposed that he...the one
on
her couch...would remember that as well. He'd remember everything,
in
fact. Like a stranger who'd read her diary, and somehow
fancied
himself intimate. It was almost too hard to take in.
She considered waking him to show him his room, but when
he didn't
respond when she called his name, she decided just to
cover him with a
blanket instead. He hardly stirred, even when she
whispered goodnight
in his ear and kissed him lightly on his
forehead.
Rose wondered why she wasn't dead to the world
herself, then remembered
she'd practically slept all the way home,
leaving him to deal with her
mother's nervous chatter. Although
she'd needed it then, she regretted
it a little, because now she
was wide awake and alone with her thoughts,
which were, at the
moment, none too pleasant.
Still, nothing she could do
about it now. A matter of time, as the
Doctor might have said. She
watched him sleep a while longer, till the
tears she held back
silently flowed down her cheeks. She missed him so
much, even
though he was sleeping right in front of her. She turned out
the
light and headed back to her room.
