Pairing: Nine/Rose

Rating: Light M for sexual content and language

Caveat to readers: Ten will be in this story, but this is not really a Ten/Rose story. I make no apologies for that.

Prologue

To any observer that was intimate with their situation, it would have been described as a predestined snowball effect. It wasn't any single situation, but the culmination of many in a fairly short period of time.

The proverbial last straw, of course, was Cardiff. The Doctor was no fool. He knew any idiot could see what he had refused to admit. It gave him a perverse sense of pleasure to watch Mickey the Idiot's face fall when it was clear that Rose wasn't coming back to London. She was staying with him, in the TARDIS.

Jack Harkness had pleasantly surprised him. Not only had he proven his resourcefulness, he had also given the Time Lord some peace of mind in regard to Rose's safety. The Doctor knew that he could trust Jack to protect Rose. The silent glare he had given Jack over Rose's shoulder the night he boarded the TARDIS did not require reiteration.

Jack played along as the Doctor sought to point out how Rose was meant to be a time traveler, as though she had been born to it. The message was unmistakable. Rose belongs here. You do not. The Doctor was thoroughly pleased at the way Mickey bumbled his part when they had cornered and captured Blon. But he hadn't counted on watching Rose slip away from the TARDIS, hand in hand with Mickey.

"So, what's on?" asked the Captain, with a knowing look.

"Nothing, just…" The Doctor refused to elaborate further, especially with Blon in their custody. There was no fooling Jack. He knew damned well what the Doctor was watching and why. Unfortunately, watching Rose wander off with Mickey was nothing compared to what happened later. The Time Lord had struggled to keep the silent terror from his expression as Blon held Rose in a chokehold that could easily become lethal within an instant. Fortunately, the TARDIS was alive and Blon was nothing in the face of her power.

In the end, it was too much. Rose had nearly been killed and there were tears in her eyes over Mickey. She had returned to the TARDIS, and to his disbelief, said Mickey deserved better. He couldn't stand it anymore. Rose disappeared from the console room, heading towards her bedroom.

With a silent nod at Jack, the Doctor was hot on her heels. She had barely shut the door before he was knocking.

"Rose!"

"Go away," came her muffled answer.

"I'm not going away, Rose. Open the door. I want…." Here he stumbled for a logical reason to come in. "I need to check you over. Blon nearly killed you."

"I'm fine, Doctor."

"You're not fine, Rose. Now just let me in."

Rose finally opened the door. "It wasn't locked." She turned around and sank onto her bed, clutching a fleece blanket.

The Doctor sat on the bed next to her. "Let me see. If you're bruised up, it will feel that much worse in the morning." He barely touched the soft, but bruised skin of Rose's neck.

Rose flinched as his hands ran along angry bruises.

"I'll go to the infirmary, we can get that fixed up right away."

"He wanted promises from me, you know," sighed Rose.

"What sort of promises?"

"Promises I can't keep. I don't want to keep them either. I had already made my promises to you."

The Doctor knew what she meant. When she said, "There's me." and "Good thing I'm not going anywhere." Then there was the trip they made to Woman Wept, their last stop before they picked up Jack in 1941.

They had kept to calmer locales after the incident with the Reapers, becoming closer than ever in spite of the harsh words that had been exchanged between them. Finally, he brought her to Woman Wept. Rather than their usual habit of holding hands, he had drawn an arm protectively around Rose's shoulder steadying her as they walked together under enormous waves of ice.

He tenderly touched her face with a single gloved finger, running it softly along her jawline. His blue eyes were naked and vulnerable when he finally spoke.

"How long are you going to stay with me?"

Not even half a heartbeat had passed before Rose's eyes lit up and she answered emphatically.

"Forever."

The Doctor's eyes were soft and understanding as he laid his cool hand over Rose's warm one. "They're mutually exclusive."

"Yep. Can't promise I'll stay with you and promise Mickey I'll come back to Earth to stay and resume a relationship with him."

"Get washed up, Rose. I'll be back in a few minutes and we'll fix up your neck. You'll be thanking me in the morning, believe me."

When he returned with the dermal generator, she was freshly scrubbed, wearing her usual bedtime attire. The Doctor was always amused by fleece sleepwear embellished with Hello Kitty. Apparently even grown women liked cutesy characters on their pajamas.

His face was solemn after he had finished healing the bruises on Rose's neck. He had been confronted in one short night with different ways of losing her.

His eyes locked on hers. "Do you love Mickey?"

"I do love him. Known him my whole life, as you already know. He's a good bloke, Doctor. Deserved better than me just running away like that. But when we were fighting, he said something…said that we were nice."

"Meaning the two of you, I gather. Nice together?"

"Yeah, that. But I want more than nice. Mickey deserves more than nice. I don't know if he was telling the truth when he said he was going out with Tricia. Made me mad. Never even so much as kissed anyone since I started traveling with you. And what did I do? Made some petty remark about Tricia's weight. Like that somehow matters if Mickey really likes her. It was mean to say that."

"Not any more petty than Rickey calling me Big Ears," he grumbled in response.

Rose's voice was a bare whisper when she answered him shyly. "I like your ears."

The tips of the ears in question blushed slightly before the Doctor snorted derisively. "I should scan you for a brain injury. Next you'll be telling me you like my daft old face, Rose Tyler."

"But I do!"

"I'm not one of your pretty boys, Rose."

"No, you're not. But you're ruggedly gorgeous in your own way."

Rose's initial shyness disappeared as they sat on the bed looking at each other, never breaking eye contact. Later, they wouldn't be able to tell who had moved first. But the end result was both of them meeting together in a fiery embrace, lips and tongues clashing, dueling for control until mere kisses were no longer enough. As they were already on a bed, there was no need to search for a better location.

At the same moment the Doctor broke off the kiss, Rose anticipated his question. "Don't you dare ask me if this is what I really want, Doctor."

All conversation ceased as the Doctor took Rose at her word and clothing began to disappear. Rose had often fantasized about the Doctor's leather jacket dropping on her bedroom floor with a thud, and actually hearing it made her womb twinge in anticipation. The Doctor's eyes were electric as his nostrils flared slightly, fully realizing the onslaught of Rose's arousal.

No conversation, but frantic words were exchanged. There was harder, fuck, and yes between pitched cries and guttural moans, as they reached a violent climax together. When they were finished, there were smiles exchanged, and soft touches, love expressed in every possible way except words and suddenly they were making love again. This time it was with a tenderness that brought Rose to tears for the second time that night, but for a completely different reason.

Rose's last idle thought before she fell asleep in the Doctor's arms was that she could scarcely believe she had contemplated what she knew would be an unsatisfying shag with Mickey in a strange hotel room.

They had three blissful weeks together before they found themselves in a no-win scenario on the Gamestation. Rose defied the Doctor's ultimate act of love in a nearly suicidal plan to save him, only to be horrified as her lover disappeared in a blaze of light and a stranger stood there in his clothes.