Date Published: May 2nd, 2008
Title: Trials and Tribulations of a Time Lord (in love)
Series: Scattered Moments
Rating: T
Characters: Ten/Rose
Genre(s): Romance, fluff.
Summary: Rose gets more than she bargains for when she asks for a holiday. A lot more. Will the Doctor's increasing behaviour sort itself out in the end?
Disclaimer: The names, images and logos identifying the BBC and their products and services are subject to copyright, design rights and trade marks of the BBC. Used without permission for non-profit, non-commercial personal use.
Fic Type: Multi-Chaptered. WIP.
Author's Note: Inspired by two things. First, by a challenge at dwchallenges: Take a fandom cliché that you absolutely hate and use it as the prompt to write a fic. There are a lot of fandom clichés I hate, but I'm going to focus on two. 1. The Doctor and Rose end up somewhere with only one bed. 2. An aphrodisiac makes one of them act in ways they otherwise wouldn't. Second, for part of the 'scattered' series, which is a series of totally unconnected Doctor/Rose stories spawning from a one-word prompt.
Prompt: Holiday, from myself. Feel free to give me one of your own to work with.
Excerpt: The Doctor fixed her with an interested gaze, then glanced back to the cottage. She could have a point, he supposed, if he really thought about it as a cottage rather than a perfectly nice get-away in the middle of Noxis, which was a holiday planet, nothing romantic in it in the slightest, and... oh, all right, domestic it was.
Trials and Tribulations of a Time Lord (in love)
One: Rest and Relaxation
Holiday
noun
1. leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure;
2. a day on which work is suspended by law or custom.
"And to you, Rose Tyler, I present... Noxis."
The Doctor pulled the TARDIS doors open with emphatic vigour, a smug grin on his face. Rose had asked for a holiday, and a holiday they were going to get. Well, sort of: no rest for the wicked, and all that.
He strode out in front, before turning briefly to grin at Rose and catch her hand in his while they walked. The TARDIS doors clicked satisfyingly shut behind them, and the Doctor's grin widened. Good to be out and about again.
"Noxis?" Rose questioned from his side, and her hand tightened on his.
"Yup," he replied, popping the 'p' like he would a lollipop. "Noxis. Land of... well, not land of anything, really. It just sort of... sits here and gets on with things."
He had parked on the brow of a hill. Well, less like parking, more like 'placing for safe keeping', but it was on a hill nonetheless. The grass was a shockingly pale green, and a huge expanse of sky extended above them. Three moons loomed above them, silhouetted in the atmosphere; the largest was circled by huge discs. Ahead, on the horizon, atop a very steep hill surrounded with trees, was a castle, its turrets pointed towards the sky. Beside the Doctor and Rose ran a river, the sound gentle and relaxing. And, beyond that, a small wood, which cast its gentle shadow across the couple.
"And we're here because..." Rose prompted, grinning up at the Doctor. He looked down at her and smiled: he could already tell she loved this place, and quite right too.
"Because you asked for a holiday!" he explained. "Now, stop asking questions."
"But Doctor, how am I ever going to learn anything if I don't ask any questions?" Rose quipped, feigning innocence.
He all but rolled his eyes (Time Lords, of course, never roll their eyes). "All right, all right. What d'you want to know?"
She paused, as though seriously considering which question to ask first. "Are we really here for a holiday?"
"Yes!" He laughed. "I figured you were right; we've been doing an awful lot of running lately, and it would be good to get out and feel the breeze on our faces... and not from running. I've had quite enough of running for a while."
"So, this place... ideal for a holiday, then, yeah?" The Doctor couldn't be certain, but he thought Rose was probing to make sure he hadn't got anything wrong.
"Absolument," he answered reassuringly. Then he paused in his walking, causing Rose to stop and turn to him questioningly. The Doctor frowned. "Absolument?" he asked himself. "What was I thinking?"
He felt Rose pull on his hand. "Doctor?"
"Right!" He looked up to her and smiled. "Noxis. Wonderful place. Holiday planet, basically. Tourists come here to relax, enjoy the sights, take in the wonderful splendour of the surroundings. That sort of thing. The air here has more oxygen in it than Earth – might make you a bit giddy if you breathe too much. Other than that, it just makes you feel..."
"Lighter?" Rose suggested. "'Cause I am definitely feeling lighter. And kind of dizzy."
"That's the air, all right. Don't worry, your body will get used to it soon enough. It'll make you feel happier, healthier."
"Like being drugged?" Rose laughed as they continued walking. Then she pointed ahead of them excitedly, up to the castle on the horizon, whose turrets were twinkling invitingly down at them. "Doctor, is that where we're going?" she asked apprehensively, with wonder in her voice. "'Cause, seriously, I would... I dunno, love you forever."
"You mean, you don't already?" He looked to his young companion and winked, affection and a hint of rakish excitement flowing through him. Then he snorted. "And you wish," he continued, with a laugh. "That, up there, is for the residents here. They have to live somewhere! No, Rose, you and I... are going there."
They had come to the edge of the wood, and the river turned sharply away to the left. Rose looked around to where the Doctor was pointing and gasped. Nestled in a small alcove of trees was a cottage, all thatched roof and billowing smoke and white picket-fenced.
"You have got to be kidding," she breathed, and the Doctor couldn't help the smile that stole his features.
"I take it you like it, then," he said quietly, stroking her hand with his thumb.
Rose turned to him. "I love it," she replied earnestly. "Really, I do. It's..." She turned back to the quaint little cottage. "Really beautiful. Is that hand built?"
"Tentacle-built, I think."
"They have tentacles?"
"They have a lot more than just tentacles."
Rose eyed him suspiciously, as though she were expecting him to be harbouring secret tentacles. The Doctor laughed. "I'm not hiding any tentacles, Rose."
She relaxed. "Just checking."
Smiling, he began to lead her towards the cottage, before he was stopped by Rose pulling him back.
"Hang on... Isn't this a bit domestic for you?"
The Doctor fixed her with an interested gaze, then glanced back to the cottage. She could have a point, he supposed, if he really thought about it as a cottage rather than a perfectly nice get-away in the middle of Noxis, which was a holiday planet, nothing romantic in it in the slightest, and... oh, all right, domestic it was. It was a better choice than... any other word she might have used to describe it.
"Rose, I'm not averse to everything that's a little bit domestic." She snorted, but he ignored it. "We live together, after all, do we not?"
She stilled, like it was the first time she had really thought about it, and suddenly an unfamiliar nervousness fluttered in the Doctor's stomach. He swallowed, watching her.
"I guess we do, yeah," she offered slowly, a smile forming through her words.
"Well there we go, then! It'll be no different. Just... more walls. Well, less walls if you think about it, but to all intents and purposes it should be absolutely, one-hundred percent, exactly the – "
"I get it!" Rose laughed, shaking her head. "You could ramble for Britain, you could. Can we go in?"
The Doctor made a rolling motion with his arm, towards the house. "The lady gets what the lady wants. Off we go, then."
Squeezing her hand, he walked with her over to the path that led to the cottage. As they got closer a wonderful scent began to rise up and surround them, and the Doctor inhaled luxuriantly.
"Smell that, Rose?" he asked as they walked. "That is the smell of relaxation!"
She took in a few breaths, then looked at him, slightly bemused. "Garlic?" she asked.
"Correctamundo! Oh... I said I'd... never say that again, didn't I? Oh well, seems to have stuck. Anyway, yes, garlic. Very observant, Miss Tyler, have you been reading my botany books?"
Laughing, she responded, "I can honestly say I haven't been anywhere near your botany books, Doctor. But when me and Mum used to go visit family – "
"'Mum and I'," he corrected, by force of habit. Rose momentarily glared at him, and he mumbled a, 'sorry' before letting her continue.
"Anyway. We used to visit family out in the country, and we all used to go for walks. Hedgerows would be all full of garlic; I always loved it."
The Doctor glanced to Rose, at her hair moving gently in the breeze and her slightly flushed cheeks, and he smiled. She noticed him looking, he could tell, and her sudden shyness filled him with a new type of confidence. He would be the first to admit that this place was very out of the ordinary for him – the fact that he even knew about it was a miracle. But when he had been looking for a place to come and relax, the TARDIS had been insistent that their next location should be here, so he had done all the research he could possibly to about this planet beforehand.
Not that he would ever let Rose catch on to the fact that he barely knew more than she did about this place. Mostly.
Suddenly, appearing in front of them with a loud pop and – much to the Doctor's dismay – a puff of smoke, was an alien. An alien he knew by Rose's standards, anyway. It was perhaps three feet tall, purple, jelly-like and waving tentacles about like it was performing some strange dance.
Rose gave a very soft shriek of surprise, and the Doctor felt her jump beside him.
"It's okay, just the locals," he said quietly to her, reassuringly. That didn't stop him from staring down at the creature bemusedly for a second or two. Then he grinned and stepped forward, friendliness armed and at the ready.
"Hello!" he greeted brightly. "I'm the Doctor. This is Rose. We've... uhm, we've come to stay. Here. Well, not here, this is grass, in the middle of nowhere. There, really. Over there, just... there." He pointed to the cottage, looking pleadingly at the creature, which was making no signs of recognising what he was saying. Behind a film of jelly two large, blue eyes blinked up at him. "Right..." he finished lamely, dropping his arm. "Right, yes. Good." He continued staring at the alien, which seemed to be throbbing in and out. Bit worrying, that. "Anything?" he said to it.
It responded by making a large 'SLURP'ing sound, waving its tentacles, and shuffling over the grass towards the Doctor. Instinctively, he took a step back, towards Rose. He tried to swallow away his confusion and apprehension, but it didn't work.
"Doctor?" Rose said quietly from his side.
"What?" he hissed back from the corner of his mouth.
"It's got a collar," she all but mouthed. He frowned, then turned his head to her. She was closer than he expected, perhaps only half a foot away, and he swallowed again. Well, this was going well.
"A what?" he asked as his brain kicked into action.
"A collar," she repeated, with some urgency. The Doctor glanced down to the blob of jelly and saw that it was, indeed, wearing a collar, and also continuously slurping its way towards them.
"So?" he asked, looking back to Rose.
She gave a small sigh, as though she were a mother explaining something incredibly obvious to a very dense child. Before he could go on about the possibilities of different cultures on this planet, she replied.
"It has a collar. We can't understand it. What else has a collar, Doctor, that we don't understand?"
"I dunno," he answered, failing to see the connection. "Dogs? Cats? People with... strange fetishes? I don't know."
"Pets, Doctor!" She was beginning to get irritable – not a good sign. He looked to the creature, then back to Rose, and realisation spread across his features in the form of a grin.
"Oh!" he enthused. "You're brilliant, you know that?"
"Or you're thick," Rose mumbled, but he pretended not to hear.
"A pet! Of course." He turned and crouched down, next to the... pet, and put a hand out as though he were about to stroke it. He paused, an unsavoury look crossing his face. He then, slowly, retracted his hand. The creature slurped again, and blinked. "Well, it's sort of... cute. I guess."
Rose snorted from above him, and he glanced up.
"Question is," he continued, standing, "what does it want with us? And where did it come from? I certainly don't remember ordering one of those when I booked."
Rose shrugged, looking down to the animal with a soft expression. "It doesn't look harmful. And... Hang on." Looking up to the Doctor, she frowned, and he got the distinct impression he was being scrutinised.
"Yes?" he said, innocently, and hoping against hope she wasn't suddenly going to come out with accusations about where her favourite milkshake in the TARDIS fridge had gone. Though, why she'd be thinking about that, he had no idea.
"Did you say 'booked'?"
The question took a moment to kick in. "Beg pardon?"
"Here. You said you 'booked' here. Yeah?"
"Yes..."
Her face lit up, and with it, the Doctor felt relief flood him like sunlight coming out from being clouds. "You actually... planned something. In advance."
"Well... I suppose so, yes," he replied, scratching his ear. "Heard it was quite difficult to get a reservation. Though it best to book in advance. You know, to be safe, and all that."
The grin that cracked her face could not have been equalled, even by himself, and she took to humming to herself contentedly.
"Happy, then?" he laughed, reaching for her hand when he realised how cold his felt.
She looked up to him with warmth. "Ecstatic."
"Good."
Staring at each other in the gentle sunlight, they almost forgot about the strange alien by their feet. Until it slurped again, and the Doctor felt something wet and slimy try to wind its way around his leg.
"Ah," he said distastefully, looking down and shaking his leg free. On his trouser leg was a damp trail of slime, and Rose giggled. "Yes."
"What are we going to do with you?" Rose cooed, bending down to the alien. Much to the Doctor's disapproval, the small creature blinked appealingly at her, then started slithering towards her instead.
"Oh, no you don't," he said, stepping in front of Rose. He looked down at it, sternly, and extended an admonishing finger. "No sliming my companions."
"I'm terribly sorry – was he scaring you?"
The Doctor, who wasn't easily surprised, looked up at a six foot or so alien – much like the one down by his feet – who had, apparently, appeared from nowhere.
"Hello," he said, in shock.
"Hi," Rose said, from beside him.
"Greetings," replied the big, purple alien with tentacles. Then he made a 'tutting' sort of sound, bent down, and pulled a leash out from under the smaller, more jelly-like alien. Pulling him away from Rose, the alien reprimanded, "Drarrl, what did I tell you about wandering off?"
The Doctor turned to Rose meaningfully, and jerked his head slightly. "See?" he murmured quietly. "Wandering off. Don't I always tell you about wandering off, Rose?"
She pulled a face at him, and he turned back to their new friend.
"Oh?" said the alien with intrigue. "Is she your pet, also? We don't usually allow pets to stay in – "
"No," both the Doctor and Rose said firmly at once. "She's my friend," the Doctor continued, with a brief smile.
"Oh, I see. Apologies for the mistake. You are to be staying in this accommodation?" He indicated behind him, at the cottage. At the Doctor's nod, he continued. "My name is Tur'tai. I will be your host while you stay here. If you experience any trouble or have any questions, feel free to contact me." He handed to the Doctor a small disc, with an even smaller button on it, that was blinking and emitting a strange whirring. He also handed the Doctor a very rusty-looking piece of glowing metal. "Here are the keys to the cottage, and dinner will be served in about three hours, on the promenade, just after moonrise. If you go in that direction for a mile or so, you should find it easily enough. After dinner, if you wish, there will be some entertainment, and we will always be around to help should you require anything. We hope you have a pleasant stay."
And, just like that, the alien vanished in a puff of green smoke, taking the strange pet with him.
"Well, then," said the Doctor, turning to Rose and dangling the key just in front of her. His eyes lit up with devilish glee as he said, "That's that. Fancy an explore?"
He didn't wait for an answer.
End this Part
Author's Note: If you liked this, why not leave me a one-word prompt to work off? That's what my 'Scattered Moments' series is all about!