"You can't just stick your fingers in someone's jam jar!" Rose sighed, exasperated. Sometimes, she felt like she was travelling with a three year old! She walked into the kitchen and put the kettle on.
"Oh come on!" The Doctor walked into the kitchen, shedding his coat and jacket. He walked up behind Rose, who was blatantly ignoring him, fiddling with the controls on the kettle. "I was saving her kid, the whole street! I can't control when I have my jam cravings!"
"You're like a PMSing girl!" Rose laughed at him. She turned around, only to find him incredibly close to her. Her breath caught.
Concern took the place of his childish grin. "What is it?"
Rose shook her head. "Nothin, just makin tea." She schooched around him. "How about we get you some biscuits for that jam fetish of yours, huh?"
She moved to the cupboard. "Oh I don't know" The Doctor leaned back against the cabinets. "I'm not sure the relationship I have with jam would be called a 'fetish'." Rose turned back to the Doctor, a jar of strawberry jam in her hands, when she saw he already had two fingers stuck in a marmalade jar.
"Where did ya get that then?" She asked him. She set the jam on the counter. "Are you the Flash or something?"
"Na, it's the pockets" The Doctor grinned at Rose, once more sticking his fingers in the jar and licking the jam. "They're bigger on the inside! It's a lovely thing."
Rose just stared. "What else is in your trouser pockets?"'
Just then, the kettle boiled. "Tea time!" The Doctor sang, as he pulled their mugs from the cupboard.
Rose just stared and laughed. "Grateful for the distraction, Doctor? C'mon, let's see what's in those pockets!"
The Doctor sighed. "Fine. Here, I'll make you a cuppa. Sit down."
A few minutes later, the Doctor and Rose both had a cup of tea in front of them.
"Alright, what's in the pockets then?" Rose asked over the rim of her tea cup.
The Doctor just grinned and reached into his left pocket. "And in the left one, there is a…"
There was a mint, a fuzzy mouse toy, a Game Boy Color ("c'mon Rose, you have to appreciate the beauty of an old school Nintendo system!"), a bag of jelly babies, and a tube of mascara.
Rose raised her eyebrow. "Why on earth do you have a tube of mascara in your pocket?"
The Doctor looked down and stared at the little tube. Slowly, he picked it up and brought it to eye level to examine it. Rolling it around in his hand, he simply said "well I found it in the library one day, and I figured it was yours, so I just put it in my pocket"
"You didn't think to give it back to me?" Rose asked.
"Well, I did" The Doctor scratched his head. "But I sort of forgot about it until now. So here you go, one tube of mascara."
The Doctor handed it over to Rose, their fingertips lightly brushing. She couldn't help but feel a little spark run through her hand and down her arm at their touch. "Thanks" she said. She took another sip of tea. "Anyway, next pocket! What's in there?"
The Doctor's manic grin coming back to his face, he started digging around in his right pocket. "This one has much more in it." He said. It seemed as if he was up to his elbows in his pocket. "Aha!"
He pulled out a stethoscope, his specks, an extra pair of socks, a jar of apricot jam ("seriously, Doctor? More jam?"), a few safety pins, a remote to something long forgotten, his back-up sonic ("it never hurts to have a spare"), some fold up flats, and a little glass bottle with a rose in it.
Rose looked at the assortment on the table. Deciding to ask about the smaller, less important things first, she began with the socks.
"We-ell, you never know" The Doctor drawled. "We do run for our lives an awful lot…what if our socks got wet? There is nothing more uncomfortable than running it wet socks." He leaned forward and picked up a biscuit. Munching on it, he looked up to Rose.
"Okay," she looked at the table again. "Safety pins? That just reminds me of the time…oh nevermind" Rose smiled to herself as she took another sip of tea
"What?" the Doctor set his elbows on the table in front of him and smiled at Rose.
"Well, when you first took me back home, 12 months late I might add," The Doctor flopped back into his chair with an exasperated sigh. Rose just laughed and continued "my Mum wanted to know if you would eat Sheppard's pie, thinking that since you were alien that you ate 'grass or safety pins or things'. It's a bit ironic that you carry them around, is all I'm saying!"
"Hey, I don't carry them around for me!" The Doctor sat back up and pointed at Rose. "Remember that time, on Exibar One, when the strap of your dress ripped and we didn't have anything to fix it with?"
"Oh yea!" Rose laughed. "We had to ask the natives for anything, and apparently their saliva was an adhesive, so they started to lick it! That was disgusting!" She laughed.
"Well, just so no more aliens have to lick your clothing, I carry them around in case of another wardrobe malfunction."
Rose was touched. "You carry them around for me?" She asked.
The Doctor looked embarrassed. "Well, yeah I suppose" He picked up his tea and sipped at it, looking at a spot over Rose's left shoulder. Rose knew it was time to move on, so she asked about the next thing that caught her attention.
"Alright what is it with the flats" She asked him.
The Doctor took a pair of the little shoes and unfolded them. "Well, when we went to dinner that one time on Chianz, you had those massive heels on. I don't want you always walking barefoot back to the TARDIS, you could step on something. So, now I carry around some of these. No big deal, really".
Rose was shocked. "Wow. That's, really nice. Thank you."
The Doctor snorted. "Why are you thanking me? I'm just being courteous!"
Rose looked down at her cup. "I guess I'm just not used to being treated this way."
That made the Doctor stop. He looked up to see Rose gazing intently into her teacup. "What do you mean?"
"Well, my mum never really had a steady job, and I had to take care of the bills and things. When I was with Mickey, well you saw how much of a little girl he is, I had to be there for him all the time. And when I went out with Jimmy, well I gave up everything for him and he left me out in the cold." Rose looked up at the Doctor. "I'm not used to being looked after."
They stared into each other's eyes for a moment.
"That's a real shame" The Doctor said. "They don't know what they are missing out on with you. I can't see how anyone wouldn't want to look after you, Rose."
Rose blushed. Before the conversation had to continue on the path that it was going, she changed the subject. "Alright, what about the glass rose? What's that about?"
The Doctor looked at the table, seemingly forgetting about what he was doing. He picked up the little glass bottle. "It caught my eye at the Bazzar on New Earth, and it reminded me of you." He placed it back down gently on the table. "So I picked it up, and it's been in my pocket ever since."
He looked up at Rose. "Being trapped in that drawing today, I could still feel it in my pocket. It was still there. And that's how I knew you were going to save me, Rose" He looked intensely into her eyes. "I knew you were coming. You keep me hoping, Rose Tyler."
Suddenly, the Rose stood. "It's late! We should be heading off to bed soon." She started clearing her dish and the plate of biscuits. Heading to the sink, she continued to talk."After all that went on today, I wouldn't be surprised if you were to go to sleep too. I mean, running with the Olympic torch is a little tiring and—"
Rose was talking so much that she didn't hear the Doctor come up behind her. His arms circled her waist as he hugged her from behind. "and usually, I'm the one that babbles" he said into her ear. Turning her around, he put his forehead on hers. "You are so important to me. I don't think you can even begin to comprehend how important you are."
Rose rolled her eyes. "C'mon, I'm just a London shop-girl who never sat her A-leve—" Rose was forced to stop talking as the Doctor's lips gently pressed against hers. Her hands were soapy and wet from washing her mug, but she still put them around his neck. He didn't seem to notice.
After a moment, they broke apart. The Doctor stared at Rose intently.
"Never let anyone tell you that you aren't special, Rose Tyler"
With that, he pulled her into a hug and tucked her head under his chin. She wrapped her arms around his waist.
Suddenly, Rose pulled away a little bit. The Doctor looked at her questioningly.
"Is this going to be a regular thing for us?"
"Is what going to be regular?" he asked her, cheekily.
"You know" She smiled the smile he loved, the one when she bites her tongue. "Kissing."
"Would you like it to be?" he asked, as he arched an eyebrow.
Rose just pulled him back to her, and kissed him. It felt like it was meant to be.
When they finally separated, the Doctor smiled at her. "I'll take that as a yes" he said.
"Good" Rose stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "Goodnight, Doctor."
"Goodnight, Rose." He said, as he watched her leave the kitchen.
Suddenly feeling so much lighter, he sighed contentedly and turned around. Once he saw the dishes in the sink, he groaned. "Oh that tricky, tricky girl!" He muttered to himself. Loudly, he said "You're going to pay for this, Rose Tyler!" He knew the TARDIS helped him get his message across when Rose laughed.
Smiling to himself, the Doctor set to finishing the dishes. Tomorrow, he thought, he would take her someplace really special. Thinking about the best intergalactic chip shops, he dried the last cup and set off to bed.