The Picnickers in Manhattan
It was an extraordinarily beautiful morning when the Doctor and Rose stepped out of the TARDIS and onto the soft grass of New Earth for the second time. In her hand, Rose carried a pretty woven picnic basket, packed full of cute little sandwiches and yummy treats. The Doctor rolled out the intricate quilt covered in threaded patterns over the smooth surface of the ground, only a few metres away from the edge of the sparkling lake. Rose giggled and happily skipped over to the blanket, flopping down cross-legged on the soft fabric.
"It's so lovely here!" she exclaimed as she once again took in the skyline of New New York. "You know, we should just relax more often. I mean, don't get me wrong! I love being faced with certain death most of the time, but I need some down time!"
The Doctor smiled knowingly. "That's the great thing about a time-machine! You can take as much down time as you want, without fear of consequences. Of course, near death experiences are often more fun." He sat down next to Rose and opened the picnic box, pulling out various food items and placing them around the basket. He looked disgusted as he took out a pear. "What is this doing there?" he asked in astonishment.
"Oh! That's for me," Rose said, reaching to take the fruit from him. He cringed as she took a bite of it. "What?" she asked him.
"How can you eat that? It's just so, pear-y." He said.
"You're ridiculous," Rose laughed, lightly punching him in the arm.
"Ow," he winced, shaking his arm and looking around with embarrassment as Rose chuckled.
He looked into the basket again, removing the final items for their summer picnic: two small juice boxes, complete with straws attached to the sides. He placed one in front of Rose and stuck the straw in his own. Rose raised her drink, signalling a toast. They touched the two boxes together and each took a sip from their juice boxes. They suppressed giggles as they looked at each other drinking their ridiculous beverages, until suddenly they burst out in laughter.
"We're just like two little kids!" Rose said, overcome with silly joy.
"Just think how I feel; I'm older than this city!" The Doctor remarked. "I guess it's good for me, otherwise I might start to feel my age," he said as the laughter began to fade from his voice.
The air became quiet. Rose looked at him with concern in her eyes. "Do you ever feel too old, Doctor?" she asked him gently.
He looked up at the clouds as the smile crept back onto his face for a moment. He turned his gaze to Rose and with all seriousness told her, "Not when I'm with you."
She smiled.
As she popped a mini-sandwich in her mouth, her eyes caught on the design of the quilt. She saw magnificent circular patterns, interwoven within each other. It looked like a language, but it wasn't translating inside her head. "Doctor, what are these symbols?" she asked.
He sighed in memory of his home planet. "That's the language of the Time Lords," he said. "Gallifreyan."
"Why isn't it translated?" Rose asked in confusion.
"I'm not quite sure, but it's likely because the Time Lords didn't need to translate it. I suppose it would have been a useless function to them." He said with a hint of sad nostalgia.
"What does it say?" Rose said in a hushed tone, clearly intrigued.
"It's an old quote, we used it a lot, but it always had great value to us. It says, 'throughout each crease in the universe; within every world and every time and space, even the smallest of acts can have an extreme effect on history.'" He looked up to the blue sky with what looked like regret behind his eyes.
Rose nodded. "No matter how insignificant you think your actions are, they could be the most important little details in the whole of creation," she said, awestruck by the wisdom of the quote. "Whether you change the world for good,"
"Or bad," the Doctor completed her sentence.
"Yeah," she whispered.
The Doctor knew the words were true better than anyone else in the universe. He had made decisions that could have destroyed worlds, changed people's entire lives, or deleted entire species. He made these choices out of anger, guilt, selfishness and sometimes even vengeance. Without someone to hold him back, he could have easily gone through with things that would have caused catastrophes. That was one of the reasons he adored Rose so much. She made him a better person; kept him grounded and always forced him to do the right thing. Though she was only in her early twenties, Rose was as wise as (and sometimes wiser than) he himself. She humbled him in a way that few others could.
The Doctor stared at Rose with a look of longing. He desperately wanted to tell her how he felt about her, but he was afraid to make things too real. He felt as though if he admitted his feelings for her, it would be too much for him to handle when he lost her.
Of course, he would lose her someday. He'd dealt with similar losses time and time again. It was just a part of life when you lived forever and your loved ones did not. He had no way of knowing if the last time he'd see Rose was in twenty years, or twenty hours. He was afraid to break his own heart by accepting his feelings himself. It would be easier to become emotionless, after all, when the time finally came. Maybe he'd work up the courage to tell her someday; before it was too late.
It was strange. He had battled murderous creatures, vengeful dictators, and soulless monsters without a hint of fear, yet the thought of losing Rose Tyler terrified him.
"What's your biggest fear?" he asked her.
Rose puzzled for a moment, her chin resting on her arm and her elbow resting in her opposite palm. "I think the thing I'm scared of most," she finally said, "is doing the wrong thing. Not just making any old slip-up, but doing something really bad; something that would make other people suffer." She looked slightly sad, as if guilty with her past mistakes. "What about you?" she asked the Doctor.
"Who, me? I'm not afraid of anything," he said sarcastically.
"Well, you're pretty brave, but everyone's afraid of something," she replied.
What he was really thinking was that he was frightened of losing her, but what he said was, "Have you ever heard of the weeping angels?"
"Never," she said with an interested expression.
"Well," he began, "they're beings that are quantum-locked; meaning without choice, as soon as they're viewed by a living organism they turn to stone. The thing is, when they're not statues, they can zap you into the past to feed on your time energy."
Rose looked confused. "Time energy?" she asked.
"The days you never had. Not to mention the fact that they're extremely fast. They could get you in the time it takes to blink."
She looked unconvinced.
"Trust me, Rose they're terrifying. Let me put it into perspective. See all of those gargoyles over there?" He pointed to an old-style building just across the water with ledges full of statues.
"Yeah, I see them," she said.
"See what happens when you blink," he whispered into her ear, watching her reaction as she looked.
She quickly opened and closed her eyes, and let out a small shriek. "They've moved!" She yelled in panic. "Some of them moved! Are they going to steal our time energy?"
"Nah," the Doctor drawled. "If anything they'll get those people over there."
"Don't you feel bad about letting them get taken away?" Rose asked quietly.
"Well, yes, but they're really isn't much I can do. The angels are pretty much everywhere." He noticed Rose's look of terror. "Don't worry though, they're usually only in crowded places where everyone can see them." He smiled at her, trying to keep the tone bright.
"Well I'll tell you one thing," she said.
"What's that?" the Doctor replied.
"The song Concrete Angel just got bumped up to a whole new level of creepy."
Rose yawned and lay back on the picnic blanket. "Getting tired, are you?" the Doctor asked jokingly. The sun was beginning to set, and the sky was streaked with shades of coral, magenta and topaz.
Rose closed her eyes and told him, "I'll never be tired of this." It was true. She would travel with him for the rest of her life, never bored. She loved every minute she spent with the Doctor. Her life had become an endless fairy-tale, action movie, and thriller all wrapped up into one big adventure. She would run away with him forever, despite the constant danger it put her in. One could tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel, as someone had once told her.
As she watched the magnificent Manhattan skyline gradually fade to darkness, she rolled onto her side to face the Doctor. "So," she said. "How long would it take for those angels to zap us if we aren't paying attention?"
"Hmm?" he muttered.
"Because it's really lovely out here, and I know exactly what I want to do, but I can't keep an eye on those statues." She gave him a flirty smile.
"Oh," he said, inching closer to her. "Really?"
"I've never been more sure of anything in my life," she said, gazing into his dark eyes.
"Alrighty then," he said giggling as she pulled him into an embrace.
The sky had turned to a dark blue, and it sparkled with thousands of distant stars. "Do you see that one, right there?" the Doctor asked, again wearing his blue suit (minus his red sneakers and tie).
"That one?" Rose pointed up into the air, the Doctor's brown jacket draped over her. The enormous sleeves bounced as she raised her arm.
"Yeah, that's the one," he said. "That star is called Kartanus. If you look very closely you can see that it's not yellow like the others. It burns green."
Rose furrowed her brow. "It looks pretty average to me," she said in a mock serious tone.
"No, believe me. It is the greenest star you'll ever see," he argued. "I've seen it, up close."
"Just because it's the greenest, it doesn't mean it's actually green!" Rose laughed.
"Well," the Doctor mumbled.
Rose gazed at the beautiful constellations in the night, and thought of how simple yet amazing her day had been. She turned her sight towards the Doctor. He was staring at the sky as well, seemingly lost in thought. He saw her looking at him, and faced her with a smile and a happy, "hi."
Every little thing about that man, from his shock and awe factor to that simple greeting, was perfect. She had known it for the longest time, yet she had never told him before.
"I love you," she said to him, with the deepest sincerity. Instead of returning her statement, he planted his lips on her forehead and pulled her close to him. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. Though he spoke no reply, she knew that he was telling her, "I love you too."