Title: Clean Slate
Summary: After dropping off Jack Harkness, the Doctor and Rose return to London, 2006. The Doctor wanders off and runs into trouble. A fatal accident causes him to regenerate, but things go wrong. Not knowing who or what he is, will the Doctor be able to reunite with Rose? How will she react when she finds he has a different face? AU after the Doctor Dances.
Genre: Angst, Drama, Romance
Pairing: 9th Doctor/Rose, 10th Doctor/Rose
Rating: PG
Content Warning: Blood, violence, Mickey-the-Idiot
Spoilers: Rose, The Long Game, The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances, Boom Town, The Parting of the Ways, Children in Need Special, The Christmas Invasion

A/N: This is the first chapter of a long story which will probably end up with at least ten chapters. Tell me what you think.

The mechanical put-put of the hover cars filled the air as they floated past. Wind swept down between the pearly white buildings, forming a wind tunnel that rustled the Doctor's leather jacket and blew Rose's hair into her face.

"Panchax Four," the Doctor announced, raising his voice slightly to be heard over the din. "Closest thing to 51st century Earth besides the real thing. No Time Agency, but if you look hard enough you might find a time ship."

Captain Jack Harkness nodded approvingly. "Looks good."

Rose put a hand up to keep her hair out of her face. "Are you sure you won't come with us?" she asked hopefully. The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"I don't think your Doctor is too keen on that idea," Jack said with a nod towards the older man.

"He's always like that," Rose said with a teasing look in the Doctor's direction.

"Rose!" the Doctor protested.

Jack laughed. "Nah. I wouldn't want to be a third wheel. You two are cute together. And you're not my type."

"If you're sure…" Rose said.

"I am. Goodbye, Rose. It's been a blast," Jack said. He took her face in his hands and kissed her soundly, but briefly.

The Doctor looked away, jealousy boiling up and tightening his chest. Unable to stand there and watch, the Doctor wandered off. He'd be back in a few minutes and Rose could handle herself. By that time, he would be rid of Jack Harkness and it would be just him and Rose again; the way it should be.

That man seemed to think he was Rassilon's gift to the universe. Sure, he'd proven himself worthy of a little respect after he'd risked his life to get rid of that bomb, but it had been his stupid con that had caused the problem in the first place and almost brought about the end of the human race. Besides he treated Rose like another one of his prospects; just another he could use and then toss aside. The Doctor could put up with Rose's pretty boys, but Harkness's dance and let dance attitude wasn't something he would put up with, not when it came to Rose. She was too important to him.

Why did Rose always pick up good-looking strays? Wasn't traveling through time and space good enough? The Doctor faltered over the next thought. Wasn't he good enough?

The Doctor groaned to himself and dropped onto a bench. He buried his face in his hands. What was he thinking? Rose was a nineteen-year-old human, he was a nine-hundred-year-old Time Lord with more issues than London had stupid apes. What could he possibly offer her besides a trip of a lifetime? He was no good at dating and dancing and he didn't do families or domestic. What would the Gallifreyan council think if they knew he was having such thoughts about a human, barely out of adolescence? They'd laugh in his face. Not that he thought much of the council's opinion.

If he couldn't give her the attention she wanted, why should he stop her from receiving it from someone else? His mind had quite a few unsanctioned answered to that question.

Because she's mine…Because they have no right to her…Because she's Rose Tyler and I'm the Doctor…Because I've never met anyone who understood me like she does…Because I love her…

The Doctor sat up and rubbed one hand over his dark, short-cropped hair. How did Rose Tyler, a shop girl from a council estate, cause him to go to pieces so easily? He was the Doctor. He was unflappable. He was impenetrable. He was—he was hopelessly in love and insanely jealous.

Rose blushed to her toes when Jack pulled away and said, "'bye, Jack."

Jack grinned roguishly before frowning slightly. "What happened to the Doc?"

Rose looked around, startled. "Doctor?" she called. "Where'd he get off to?"

Jack smirked. "I don't think the Doctor's the spectator type. Jealous much?"

"Who? The Doctor?" Rose denied half-heartedly, blushing. She knew that the Doctor had been jealous of Jack; he had practically admitted it during their first dance in the Albion Hospital basement.

Jack grinned again. "Come on, Rose, don't play innocent. I've seen the way the Doctor looks at you. And I've felt the way he's glared at me ever since we met. I know I'm just a fun distraction. The Doctor's the one you want."

"Jack…" Rose started, her blush deepening.

"Tell him I said good luck and goodbye. Maybe I'll see you two again someday."

"Maybe," Rose agreed. She threw her arms around him in a hug and then stood waving as he disappeared into the crowd. "Now to find the Doctor," she said to herself. She hoped he wasn't sulking. If he was, he wouldn't be in a good mood again for days.

Rose wandered in the direction she guessed he was most likely to go and scanned the crowds for the familiar leather jacket. He would stand out in the more cheerily, clothed natives, all in whites or bright colors. He really needed to get himself a mobile phone. It would be so easy to just call him. She hoped she didn't lose the way back to the TARDIS. The Doctor would call her as soon as he got back and found her gone, but she didn't think it would improve his mood if he had to come and get her.

In the end, he wasn't hard to find. He was seated on what looked like a porcelain bench, his dark clothes contrasting sharply against the glistening white surface and buildings around him. He was staring moodily at the pedestrians around him, most giving the brooding figure a wide berth.

Rose gave him a smile as she sat down beside him. "Doctor. What're you doing out here? Why didn't you stay and say goodbye to Captain Jack?" She winced as she realized bringing Jack up probably hadn't been the best idea.

The Doctor gave her a brittle smile. "I'm sure he didn't mind. Thought I'd give you two a chance to be alone," he said, bitterness coloring his tone.

Rose sighed. "Doctor, Jack's doesn't mean anything more to me than…Adam." Rose and the Doctor winced in unison. "All right, maybe a little more than Adam. But he's fun, that's all."

"Why are you telling me this?" the Doctor demanded.

"I just thought…"

"Well, you thought wrong. I'm not one of your pretty boys, Rose. My world doesn't revolve around you. You thought I was jealous?" He laughed mirthlessly and stood. "I'm a Time Lord, Rose. I'm not susceptible to human emotions."

"Oh, really!" Rose said, hurt and angry. "Then what about in the hospital basement? If that wasn't 'human emotion,' then I don't know what is!"

"Call it idle curiosity," the Doctor said cruelly.

Rose made a hurt noise in the back of her throat as she stared at him in shock. The Doctor looked away, unable to hold her gaze. "Is that what I am, then? Just a freak under glass?" she demanded, jumping to her feet.

"You know I'm not human," he said sternly.

"No, you're not, are you? You really are alien," she said tartly, sounding quite a bit like her mother.

"You knew that when you came aboard. I didn't force you," he countered.

"In that case, Doctor, take me home."

The Doctor looked at her sharply. "What?" he asked in disbelief, worry creeping into his eyes.

"You heard me, Doctor, take me home," Rose repeated.

"Rose, I—" he started a bit desperately.

"Please, Doctor, just take me home," Rose said, trying hard to mean it.

"Don't do that!" the Doctor snapped, bringing her up short, his mood swinging from anxiety to anger abruptly. "Don't even suggest that unless you've thought it through, unless you're absolutely certain. 'Cause once I've taken you home to stay, it's permanent."

She stared into his icy, blue eyes as they held hers intently, frightened by the prospect of never seeing the Doctor again.

"'s not a game, Rose. You can't just threaten to leave every time we have a row. I won't stand for it," he said sternly, angry that she had tried to play him like that. She immediately felt ashamed of acting like a petulant child, but wasn't ready to back down. He was the one who'd insulted her.

"And I won't stand being insulted and played with," Rose countered, standing to meet him head-to-head.

He towered over her angrily. "I'm not the one whose been playing with you. That'd be the good Captain. He wouldn't know how to properly treat a woman if he was handed an instruction manual and given four years to learn it."

"At least he didn't lie to me!"

"I've never lied to you!"

"'I'm not susceptible to human emotions,' like your Spock or something," she mocked.

"Thought that's what you wanted. A little Spock?"

"Not like that!" Rose shouted. She looked away and took a deep breath. "You're so sad, Doctor. Isn't that a human emotion? When we're together and we're laughing, you're happy. Isn't that a human emotion? What else do you feel, Doctor?"

The Doctor stared at her, stunned. His eyes burned with emotional turmoil. "Rose…" he started, but couldn't finish whatever it was he was going to say.

"I don't want to leave," Rose said timidly.

"I'm sorry," he said, reaching out and tentatively cupping her cheek with his hand. "I didn't mean what I said."

Rose shut her eyes and leaned into the contact. "I hoped you didn't."

"What were we arguing about?" the Doctor asked.

Rose looked up at him and laughed. "Whether or not you were jealous."

"Oh. Well…I don't know 'bout jealous, but I am glad it's just you and me again," the Doctor said, caressing her cheek briefly before letting go.

Rose smiled. "Me, too."

The Doctor grinned. "Fantastic," he declared, taking her hand and leading her back toward the TARDIS. "I know just where to go! It's beautiful. 's called Woman Wept. The entire planet was flash frozen in the middle of an hurricane. You'll love it," he enthused.

"Are you trying to tell me something?"

He frowned. "No…why?"

"Just checking," Rose said.

Rose and the Doctor stood beneath the crest of a giant wave that was just beginning its crash downwards toward the surface of the ocean. The frozen white cap provided just enough protection from the wind as they looked out in wonder at the moment in time around them, stars glittering in the midnight sky.

"'s amazing," Rose said for the hundredth time. The Doctor grinned as he had each time before. Rose leaned into the Doctor's shoulder for a little more warmth and he wrapped his arm around her. They stood like that for a long moment before Rose broke the silence. "It's alright, ya know," she said softly.

"What is?" the Doctor asked.

"To be jealous."

"Rose…" he warned, obviously not wanting to start that conversation again.

"'m just saying, I was jealous of Jabe," she admitted hesitantly.

"Rose, I'm—You were?" he asked, looking at her in surprise. She nodded. "Oh," he said, his bemusement almost comical.

"I mean, what's a frumpy, little, human girl like me have against a nice-looking tree like her?" Rose said with a grin.

The Doctor let his gaze run up and down her briefly as if in appraisal. "Hmm."

"'Hmm?' That's all you've got to say? 'Hmm?'" she demanded in mock-indignation.

"Yeah. I was just wondering what you'd look like with sprouts," the Doctor said with an impish grin. Rose elbowed him in the side. "Oof! That hurt!"

"Better be careful or you'll be getting more than a nudge," Rose warned, grinning despite herself.

The Doctor's answering grin faded into a thoughtful expression as he gazed out at the frozen waste land around them. "You lot live and breathe, and work and eat, and sleep day after day on your little world, all the time never expecting tragedy to strike. This place was a lot like Earth once, ya know. This beach is beautiful now covered in ice and snow, but underneath…There were people visiting this beach, others living in the city ten miles from here, not expecting anything. Never saw it coming until it was too late."

Rose watched the wind blow snow across the ice, imagining what it might have looked like and feeling for the people who had died here. Finally, she looked up at the Doctor whose expression was dreary. "Cheery company, you are," she said teasingly, poking him in the chest. He looked at her solemnly. "It's cold. Let's go back to the TARDIS and have some hot chocolate," she said.

The Doctor grinned. "I've a better idea. Let's go to the Swiss Alps. I know a skiing lodge where they make the best hot chocolate in the galaxy."

"What time?" Rose asked.

"Anytime! As long as it's not after the 40th century," he said enthusiastically.

"What happens in the 40th century?"

"Had to blow it up. Someone thought it would make a good staging ground for taking over the Earth," the Doctor said nonchalantly.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Only you would find a reason to blow up a skiing lodge."

"Don't know what you mean, really. I was just trying to save your sorry, little planet," the Doctor said with a long-suffering expression. "You lot don't deserve the best hot chocolate in the galaxy."

Rose deigned not to reply to that. They walked hand in hand back to the TARDIS and Rose was glad to duck in out of the cold. "Do you think, after we have our hot chocolate, we could stop in to my mum?" Rose asked as the Doctor started the TARDIS's engines. "Just for a visit," she added quickly when she saw him go still at her question. "It's been a while and after everything that's happened recently…"

"Sure," the Doctor said. He smiled. "You might want to leave off the bit about the barrage balloon," he teased.

"Gonna get a smack, you are," Rose said indignantly. "'s not like you never get yourself into trouble."

"Never mind that. Hot chocolate, it is! And marshmallows to match?"

"Yeah!"

"Here we go…!"