To all them lovely Doctor Who fanfiction authors who write Doctor/Rose pairings- chances are if they're on here, I've read it. So to you all, I thank you for writing them, and I felt the need to write a little something of my own. PreJack, therefore prePOTW, therefore pre10th.

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"This is your bloody fault y'know!"

"My fault? How the hell is your messing about with the TARDIS controls my fault!"

"You were the one who wouldn't move off their lazy arse to get off that fire planet before it killed us!"

"That's 'cause I was unconscious!"

"Because you were the one who had to piss that… that thing with the ugly arse…or face or whatever off!"

"Which I had to do so that you could get out of that prison which, may I add, you would never have found yourself in had you not gone bloody wandering off on your own! Honestly, you humans are so-"

"Oh! So it's like that now innit! Well, you might as well take me back to London then, you obviously don't need me holding ya back!"

…

"Fine."

"…What?"

"I'm taking you back. Now."

Rose sighed moodily as she lay slumped over the kitchen table, idly flicking the scrap of paper she had crumpled into a ball. It had been two weeks, five days and four hours since the Doctor had dropped her off near her house in stony silence.

That was two weeks, five days, three hours and fifty nine minutes more than she had expected him to be gone for.

Not that she was counting.

Well… if Rose was truly honest with herself, she would have admitted to herself that she hadn't expected him to drop her back in here at all. Not after all that they'd been through together, not after all that. Her mother had obviously been delighted to have her back- apparently; it had been only a month since they'd last seen her. To Rose, it had felt like… well, it had felt like years. An eternity.

When she had gone up to her old room- well, her room and looked at pictures that in this time and age were only about four weeks old at best, she could see the change for herself when she compared the Rose Tyler forever immortalized on glossy paper to the Rose Tyler in the unforgiving mirror.

So could her friends.

At first, they had complimented her enthusiastically on her great tan, her gorgeous clothes that'd been picked up in some market on a planet in the Andromeda galaxy, her longer, naturally lighter hair and all that, but slowly and surely, they couldn't ignore that she looked… different. There were unexplainable scars that had that faded sort of look to them, and she had a sort of hardiness to her that hadn't been there before; like an invisible barrier that warned them that she'd changed.

Where had their Rose gone?

Only Mickey, her mother knew the reason why Rose would become so distracted when in town, why she looked like she'd been at the Nescafe coffee nonstop. Her eyes were always darting from left to right, from man to man that prowled the London streets- in particular, the ones who wore black leather jackets.

Gradually, they began to withdraw from her. Everyone; her friends, her boyfriend and sometimes it felt like her mother too. There had been a time before the Doctor (had there really been such a time?) when Rose was out every night with her friends in a sexy little skirt and tee getting happily getting sloshed in a club or pub after a wearying, boring day selling clothes ("There's a special offer on our brand underwear, Sir, two for one") to mindless, everyday people.

But now…

Well, Rose had tasted the Universe, and she wanted more.

She was hungry for it, craved the adventure and the thrills of escaping a horrible and painful death in the nick of time hand in hand with the Doctors, and then rolling her eyes playfully as his mind raced ahead- mere minutes after saving a planet- planning the next thrilling, hair-raising experience.

But where was she now? Stuck in a mundane world, where the next buzz was finding out whether the milk was drinkable when sour. Oh sure, she was with the people who loved her. Rose was surrounded by people who loved her in their own way. Except one.

Not that the Doctor loved her, she thought miserably. Rose was quite sure that he felt affection towards her, certainly. Otherwise why would he bother letting her time-travel with her? She doubted that the Doctor could love anything or anyone other than the TARDIS. It was just that… well, sometimes Rose had thought that there were signs, certain glances or the things that he said, that meant he… well, what use was it anyway? He'd made his opinion of her loud and clear when he'd pushed her back into this meaningless existence. Here, she wasn't saving beautiful and strange new worlds, or feeling that racy pump of adrenaline in her blood.

Or feeling the Doctors strong hand clasp hers reassuringly, entwining their fingers around each other with the familiarity only lovers knew…

Here she was just Rose Tyler and it just wasn't good enough.

She felt horrible even thinking that to herself, but it was true- now she only felt like half of a person. Stupid Doctor with his stupid adventures and his stupid leather jacket- not to mention his stupid manic grins.

And his stupid "Fan-tas-tic" phrase. He was just one great big pile of… of… stupid!

And, oh God, how she missed him.

Standing up, Rose grabbed a faded zip up jacket that had seen better days ("Thanks a lot Doctor, I don't think that stain's gonna wash out y'know") and walked towards the front door, snatching a small duffle bag that she'd taken to toting everywhere in the pathetic hopes that one day- just one day, he'd come back for her.

"I'm just going out Mum; I'll be back in a while," she called over her shoulder dully before stepping out into the cool London air. For half an hour, Rose wandered aimlessly around under the grayish clouds until she eventually found herself standing in the same park that the Doctor had dropped her off at. Clasped in her freezing hands was a portion of chips that swam in salt and vinegar.

But even the soft, golden brown chips weren't enough to lift her out of this mounting depression she'd sunk into (if anything, they only reminded her of the leather clad one), and sighing heavily, she began chucking some of the chips into the pond over the heads of the few ducks and geese that resided there.

"Well, if I had known you'd gotten so low as to throw away your deep fried rooted carbohydrates at webbed animals, I'd have come sooner. They try to take over the world in 2340, incidentally. The ducks, not the chips."

She froze.

'Don't turn around, don't look at him, stupid stupid stupid idiotic-'

"Doctor!" Spinning around, Rose looked up at the tall figure who had somehow managed to sneak up on her in her musings.

"The one and only."

"Why are you…?"

There was a long silence in which the Doctor walked round the bench and sat next to Rose, fingers pilfering chips from the pile in her hands. After chomping away at a few chips, he finally shrugged and stared out across the pond, noticeably refusing to meet her eyes.

"We've both made our mistakes." Rose knew that this was as close to an apology she would get. And though she knew that she shouldn't have thought so, knew she didn't expect anything more from him.

"Yeah s'pose."

Soon, the chips had all dwindled away to nothing, and they sat in uncomfortable silence again. Rose wanted badly to know, needed to know but she didn't want to ask him. Ten minutes must have passed before she mentally snorted and threw caution to the wind. 'Sod it,' she thought, 'It isn't as if it's anything I would… well cry about if he says he has anyway.'

"Have you-"

"Do you-"

They both stopped, before the Doctor inclined his head, an indication to let Rose speak first. Chewing on her bottom lip, she reluctantly started again.

"I just- well… well, have you already found another- another companion?" She finally asked in a rush, her words almost tripping over themselves in the haste to leave her tongue. The Doctor blinked, before the beginnings of one of his manic smiles tugged at his mouth.

"Nah. Couldn't really get rid of the last one."

Rose felt herself grinning along with him, the first time in was two weeks, five days… and how many hours it had been. "Oh yeah? What's she like then?" His face scrunched up as if in very deep thought.

"Annoying." This earned him a hard punch on his shoulder. "Oi, easy! I hadn't finished yet. Well, like I said, she's annoying, whiney, temperamental, irritating- hey what are you doing with that-" Before he'd managed to finish his sentence, the last remaining Time Lord found his vision obscured by a damp, smelly wad of newspaper that had been thrown in his face with the sound of Roses exasperated laughter ringing in his ears.

Rising menacingly from the bench, the Doctor stepped slowly towards her menacingly… and on some silent cue, they began a game of chase in the chilly afternoon in the park, shrieks and shouts of pure joy filling the air. Couples both young and old walking past smiled indulgently at the young (and not so young). The impromptu chase ended when the Doctors long fingers managed to close themselves over Roses' smaller ones.

She wasn't cold anymore.

"To the TARDIS then?" he asked, finally looking into her eyes (Rose was sure that the jump in her stomach was something to do with the chips and not his eyes, yes that must be it), with his famous maniacal smirk. Rose nodded, returning his grin.

"Fan-tas-tic."

Yes, he was still that stupid, idiotic Doctor. Yes, he'd probably lead her into yet even more dangerous situations.

But he was her Doctor.

That made all the difference.

FIN

Edited/ReUploaded and generally made better cause it was bad before. I had to add that line from POTW as it is the best shippy line, lyke, EVA.