This is only my second piece of Fanfiction ever, so it's probably not very good. Any feedback would be very useful- So please leave a review! Thankyou.
The 10th Doctor and Rose.
I own nothing related to BBC's Doctor Who- I'm simply a fan writing fanfiction.
After the Adventure: An Evening in the TARDIS
Rose's POV
"It sounds dangerous, I hope you're being careful, Rose. He better be taking good care of you or he'll be in big trouble with me". Mum rambled on, lecturing me on the importance of staying safe in the very unsafe universe.
"Yes mum, I always am, and he knows" I assured her. I sat back on the control room chair so I could bring my knees up to my chest before moving my mobile phone to the other ear.
"Yes well he better know! How is he? What are you doing now?" She questioned.
"He's good, he's gone to get dinner I think".
"What do you mean getting dinner? He doesn't cook- and since when has that thing had a kitchen?" The interview continued.
"The TARDIS," I corrected her "has always had a kitchen, it's in one of the rooms in the back. Never seen him use it though, he's getting a takeaway". This was usually what we ate because we never really had the time to cook with all the adventures. The Doctor's versions of takeaways were fun though, never dull or repetitive, always new from different planets and their cultures.
"Oh great, so he's feeding you rubbish all the time is he? Rose you need to eat better- keep that figure of yours- come back home more often, get some good food in you, in you both."
The thought of mum's cooking made me giggle. My Mum wasn't going to be winning masterchef anytime soon. Half of the time she'd present me with a black pizza that looked more like charcoal than food, and the rest of the time it was either microwave meals or her famous homemade shepherd's pie- famous because it looked like a creation of Frankenstein.
"No Mum, we eat well- there's all kinds of nice foods out there, you'd like it. There's really no need to come back for a while". I regretted the words as soon as they were out my mouth.
"No need? No need?! Well there's a need when you need your clothes washing isn't there?". I'd just opened the gates of hell.
"I didn't mean that Mum, I meant-"
"I know exactly what you meant Rose Tyler!" She was quiet for a while and I felt her anger bubble away and turn into sadness, it was clear from her tone. "You don't need me anymore."
"Mum, I'll always need you. You know that. I'm just… I'm enjoying traveling at the minute and-"
The TARDIS door slammed open and the Doctor burst through with a bright orange bag in each hand, a huge grin on his face, the grin I loved. "Right! What do you want? I've got corinthian fog balls, fried syaster and hopsgog." he announced as he shut the door and walked up to me.
"What's that?" I laughed.
"Oh you'll love it! It's this weird vegetable- well this planet's equivalent- but it tastes just-"
"Rose are you still there?" My Mum shouted down the phone. I'd instantly forgotten about her, lost in his smile.
"Um, yeah, foods here, I gotta go Mum" I said, eyeing the strange boxes the Doctor was pulling out of the orange bags.
"Speaking to Jackie?" The Doctor asked, raising one of his eyebrows.
I nodded, he relaxed his brow and continued emptying the bags.
"I miss you Rose, promise me you'll come home soon, to visit." She sounded disheartened and unhopeful that that would happen.
"Of course Mum, and in the meantime, I'll call you when I can. I miss you too. Look, I've really gotta go now, but I'll speak to you soon". I tried to make my escape.
"Okay, well I love you." She said, sounding even less hopeful than before. I would chat to her for longer, make her see how much I missed her, but the Doctor had finished emptying the bags and I was hungry.
"Love you too, Mum. Bye" I hung up the phone and shoved it in my pocket before jumping off the chair and joining the Doctor at the controls where he'd moved some gadgets to clear a space for the food. "Sorry about that" I smiled, excited for the meal.
"It's alright, you've got to make time for your Mother every once in awhile- especially with Jackie being your Mother- she'd kill me if you didn't let her know you were alright every once in a while." He laughed and I echoed his laugh with mine- He was right.
"So this hupigog?-"
"Hopsgog" he corrected me still laughing.
"What did you say it tastes like?"
"So it's a vegetable- but- it tastes just like chicken!" His smile widened.
"No way!"
"Yes way!" he reached into a box and handed me a blue circular item, a bit squishy like a stress ball. "Try it!"
"This is a vegetable?" I raised my eyebrows a smiled sarcastically.
"Well, close enough, like I said: this planet's equivalent. Food here doesn't grow on trees or in the ground but rather in the air, floats around and grows until it's ready"
I shook my head in amazement and took a large bite from the hopsgog. He was right. It tasted exactly like chicken. I took another bite, chewing quick and forcing the food down my throat. Delicious! "Oh my God- this is great!"
"I told you" he winked at me and grabbed one himself.
We both sat closely next to each other on the long control chair, eating, letting him explain what the food we were eating was and laughing over the day's events. Today had been a good day- we went to the planet 'Kos' to look around it's markets and do some sightseeing. They had lots to see there- colour changing statues, floating castles, museums for just about everything. It rained while we were out, but the rain was purple, which left me singing Prince songs for the rest of the day, and the Doctor confused- apparently he had never listened to Prince before, so I had to explain the joke to him.
We had finished dinner and we were both still sat on the chair next to each other except now I had my head rested on his shoulder and his hand was relaxed on my knee.
"Do you think that song was written about Kos?... Well about it's rain?" I asked.
"Who knows? Maybe Prince is an alien"
"With terrible tusks?" I teased, grinning...
"Oh, and terrible claws!" he laughed…
"And terrible teeth in his terrible jaws!" we both shouted before bursting out into uncontrollable laughter.
"How come you know the Gruffalo?" He asked still laughing "That was published in your teens! Bit old for a bedtime story don't you think?"
"Oi," My laughter grew louder "I did work experience in a nursery once, kids loved that book! Anyway who are you to talk? You're centuries older than I am!"
"Exactly, I've had enough time to read every book ever written by you humans". Still laughing- I began to wonder if we would ever stop.
"Every book?" I giggled sarcastically.
"Okay well not every book, but a lot of them!"
"And you chose to read the Gruffalo?" the laughter hurt!
"Yes, but only because it's based off a real creature". I stopped laughing- finally- and lifted my head so I could face him.
"Really? Gruffalo's are real?!" I gasped.
If I thought he was laughing loudly before then I was wrong. His laughter exploded out of him like a volcano. "No, of course not! But you should've seen your face!".
I smiled and playfully pushed him, but he was laughing so hard he couldn't keep his balance and fell off the chair and onto the TARDIS floor which encouraged a new wave of laughter from us both. He slowly got up and placed himself back on the chair with me and we resumed our position of my head on his shoulder and his hand on my knee, eventually the laughter died out.
"So did Jackie say anything about me today?" He asked curious.
"Not really, just that you better be taking good care of me, which you are"
He tapped my knee "Good to hear".
"Good to have" I responded.
"What a Jackie thing to say" he said, momentarily re-lighting our giggles.
"That's Mother's for you" I mused.
"...Um hum" he agreed, although he sounded far away, lost in his thoughts. Thinking of his own Mum maybe? He'd never spoken to me about his family. Just that he was alone now- well not alone, because he had me- but the last of his kind.
Curiosity overruled me.. "Do you remember your Mum?". He was silent so I gave him a nudge.
"What?... oh, erm no, not really." he spoke slowly, like he did when he thought.
"You remember everything." I stated. It was true, he could remember almost everything about everything he'd ever seen- every species, every type of technology. His brain was brilliant. A living encyclopedia of the galaxy.
"Not her." her said bluntly, very seriously.
"Why?"
He sighed, "because sometimes the people we leave behind, and I leave behind so many… It's easier… it's better to forget." I could sense sadness and mourning in his voice, but he tried to hide it in his 'matter of fact' tone.
It was strange to think about, but the Doctor was old and had outlived many people. I knew this, I had always known this, but hearing the weakness in his voice took me back. I'd never really thought about how that had affected him. I remember the day I met Sarah Jane, I was upset by the idea that the Doctor had many companions with him over the years, scared that one day I would end up like her. When I'd confronted him about it, he'd explained that I could spend my whole life with him, but he could never spend his whole life with me. I'd seen his struggle to accept that then, but here now I could see his pain, the pain which he was trying to numb and make non-existent. His reality. I wondered…
"Will you forget about me?"
He snapped his head to me, forcing my head to lift off his shoulder and stare back at him. "What?" he asked.
"When I die. Will you forget about me?" Was I nothing? Would he forget me within days? Pretend I never existed? Was he more to me than I was to him? I don't think it was possible to forget him. Not ever.
"Rose, I promised your mother I'd take care of you, and I keep my promises. I'll never let you die- You're safe with me" I couldn't doubt the sincerity of his voice- i was so pure so trusting. I could never not doubt that voice.
"I know I'm safe with you, I believe you with all my heart, and since I want to spent the rest of my life traveling with you, I know I'll always be safe. But I can't escape death. One day I'll grow old and die. We can't all regenerate and live forever."
"I won't live forever, Rose". It was hardly a whisper.
"But you'll live a lot longer than me." This made me sad to think about- that I could never grow old with him, never have the life I so wished to have with him. But it also made me happy that I would never have to mourn him, I would never have to worry about that. He was silent. "So?" I encouraged.
"So what?" He snapped.
"So will you forget me?"
He stood up and started angrily pacing around the TARDIS. "Rose, why are you bringing this up? What does it matter what happens to me, what I think after you're… gone." The last word was quiet compared to the rest of the sentence which he seemed to shout.
"Because it does. It just does." I could feel tears welling up in my eyes, but I fought to hold them in and succeeded.
"Well Stop! That's far away- in the future!"
"You're a Time Lord- your future is the same as your past!" I argued.
"It is not the same!" he shouted. He took a deep breath and then said quieter: "Rose, I don't want to think about that".
"But-"
"Rose!" His final shout ended the argument.
All fell silent and he continued to pace around the TARDIS. I stayed sat, thinking quietly to myself. I'd upset him. I'd seen the Doctor upset before- upset by aliens trying to overthrow world's, upset by the treatment of creatures, but it wasn't the same this time. I pushed him on a topic which door he kept closed and locked. I felt awful. After a few minutes in silence, I spoke…
"Doctor…" he slowly faced me, all anger erased. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you or make you…"
He interrupted me by joining me on the long chair. And wrapping his long arms around me. I pushed my arms under his and wrapped them around his chest, resting my chin on his shoulder.
"You have nothing to be sorry for. You're only human after all- it's in your genes to be curious. I reacted... badly." I didn't say anything, scared my voice would distract me from holding in my tears. He continued: "If it matters that much to you… Rose, I couldn't forget you."
I felt my heart race faster and I'm pretty sure I could feel his hearts doing the same. "Even if you wanted to?" I questioned.
"Even if I wanted to." I sighed in relief, thankful to hear the answer I'd been yearning for. We stayed there for another minute in our embrace, enjoying each other's company, although I feared I enjoyed his much more than he enjoyed mine. But that didn't matter. Even if he could never love me, he would never forget me, and for now that was enough.
He jumped up and skipped over to the controls, back to his usual self. He placed his hand over a lever and threw a silly face at me. "Right then, tell me Rose Tyler, where do you want to go tomorrow?"
His silly face made me giggle. "Does it matter? We never end up where we plan to anyway!" I raised my eyebrows and smiled.
"True," his smile widened and I basked in it's glory… "But we need a starting point!"
"Fine," I exclaimed "Somewhere with, oh I dunno… flying dogs!"
A roar of laughter escaped him upon my request. "I know just the place!" His hands moved swiftly over the controls, moving things around. "The Planet of Harlifem- It's not too far from Earth actually- same constellation."
"Sounds great!" I said enthusiastically.
"It's going to be a long day, you better get some sleep- you look exhausted, terrible in fact" he teased. He was right though, I was knackered and needed a long sleep.
"Think you're funny don't you? May I remind you that you can't even stay balanced on a chair?" I grinned evilly.
"That's because I was pushed by this strange alien girl who believes in the gruffalo- calls herself a 'human'." He winked.
"She sounds awful" I played along. "She must have been strong to push you though, either that or you're incredibly weak!"
He grinned. I had him. "You'd like that wouldn't you?" he laughed.
I nodded and kissed him on the cheek before walking out of the control room and towards the corridor. I turned to face him one last time. "I'll see you tomorrow. Good night, Doctor".
He just stood there, hands in his pockets smiling back at me. "Goodnight, Rose" he said softly.