The Lodgers

By: SilverLunarStar

Chapter One

Disclaimer throughout story: Nope, I don't own Doctor Who.

Note: I know, I know. WHAT AM I DOING POSTING ANOTHER MULTI-CHAPTER FIC WHEN I HAVEN'T EVEN FINISHED Love Like Ours? Buuuut, this is my entry for the fic Olympics on tumblr... I promise I will be putting all my focus on LLO next week when this is done. The Lodgers will be five chapters long and will be posted every other day. Adult rated chapter takes place either in chapter 4 or 5 - I'm not quite sure yet. Also, this takes place in my From Forever to Eternity 'verse.

ALSO, this is dedicated to my lovely Bear, AKA Aintfraidanoghosts on tumblr who has waited too long for this story.

Why couldn't he just tell her? Craig Owens had been friends with Sophie Campbell since she had started working at the call centre and they'd hit it off almost immediately. Now, a year later, he was finally ready to do it. Craig was going to tell Sophie how he truly felt. He knew that he wasn't much to look at, but even if she didn't return his feelings, at least he'd been brave enough to tell her. He had been in love with her since what seemed like forever and if he didn't tell her soon, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

The doorbell rang and he turned around to notice the keys set on a pink, fluffy key ring. He sighed; she always did that. Suddenly, he straightened his posture. This was it, this was his moment. Grabbing the keys, he opened the two other doors before finally reaching the front one. Craig opened it and declared his love to her. Instead of Sophie, a squabbling pair stopped as soon as the word "you" escaped his lips and gawked at him for a moment.

A blonde woman (another blonde, not his blonde) recovered first and gave him a cheeky smile. "Sorry mate, but he's taken. Though the way he's going right now, I may just let you borrow him."

"Oi!" the floppy haired man exclaimed, pouting in her direction and she laughed, shaking her head. Turning back to Craig, he said, "We're your new lodgers!" Spotting the keys, he snatched them. "Look Rose, this is going to be easier than I expected."

The woman, Rose, sighed and rolled her eyes. "You're being rude. Again."

"Well, that's me, rude and-"

"Not ginger. I know." She gave him an indulgent smile before turning her attention back at Craig. "I'm sorry about him; he can be a bit…eccentric."

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"I'm Rose, Rose Tyler, and this here's the Doctor. Well, Doctor Michael Smith. He just likes to be called the Doctor, fancies himself the Doctor, really, and it's just easier if we all let him believe that." She grinned at him and Craig couldn't help but blush. He was in love with Sophie, of course, but he wasn't blind; she was very pretty. "We saw your advert at the shop and hoped to see the bedroom for rent. What's your name again?"

"I- uh. Craig Owens." He blinked. "I only put the advert out today - didn't even put my address." What was going on here?

At that, Rose bit her lip and looked at…the Doctor. Funny how easy he accepted the man's nickname.

"Well, you're lucky we came along! More lucky than you know." He looked up to the second floor. "We may not be young professionals," at Rose's 'ahem', he rectified, "well, Rose is certainly young. I'm more of an ancient amateur. Frankly, we're an absolute dream. The stuff of legend, even." He winked at the blonde.

Shaking his head, Craig snatched the keys back. "You can't have those! They're…" He paused, before continuing, "Anyway. Don't even know if I want you staying."

"I know you might have not been looking for a pair," Rose finally inputted, "but I promise we won't be in the way. We'll be-" Before she could finish, the Doctor suddenly made his way through the door.

"Excuse me!" he exclaimed.

"Rose, be a dear and handle the rent, would you?"

Craig watched as Rose rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry about him; he tends to get carried away when he's excited and doesn't think things through. I hope we can come to an arrangement, though; no other places around here to rent."

"Well, I-" He was cut off by the noises coming from the kitchen and heard Rose groan.

"Come on, let's go see what he's doing before he burns the place down and you have no home as well."

When they entered the kitchen, Rose smelled something cooking and grinned when she saw the Doctor was stirring eggs, ham, and cheese in a pan. She hadn't realised she was hungry until now. He looked up and grinned. "Are you two hungry? I'm hungry. Who's that girl on the fridge?"

Rose took a peek at the photo and smiled as she saw 'CRAIG ROCKS' spelled out from the letter magnets. She had a feeling that it was the woman in the photo who had done that, but she let the Doctor question Craig for now. Sure, they were here to investigate; that didn't mean they had to go in blind and live with someone they didn't know. Though if their future selves had asked Amy to leave them a note then things should be fine. Eventually. She leaned against the counter next to the sink when she was done with her observation of the fridge.

"My friend. Sophie."

"Girlfriend?"

"A friend who is a girl. There's nothing going on."

"Ah, that's completely normal. Didn't quite work for me, but I'm not complaining." The Doctor turned to Rose and gave her a wink and she couldn't help but giggle.

Unlike the Doctor, however, she could hear the longing in Craig's voice and wondered if the woman, Sophie, felt the same for him. Judging by what the letters spelled out on the fridge, she was sure he at least had a chance.

"We met at work about a year ago at the call centre," he continued.

"Oh really, a call centre? That could be handy." It was just like the Doctor to get a scoop on the resources available, but this early? Well, it wasn't too much of a surprise; it'd shock her more if he actually came up with a plan rather than just let things happen. Guess that was up to her. She looked around the room, humming in amusement when, after Craig had told the Doctor about his job's rubbish business model, her Time Lord had responded with, "I've got one of those faces. People never stop blurting out their plans while I'm around." It was true, sometimes. He seemed completely harmless until you looked him straight in the eyes and saw the leashed storm within.

"So, Craig," she finally interrupted before the Doctor had the poor man spill all his secrets. "Mind showing me around while the Doctor sets up? I mean, if you do decide to let us rent, I'd like to know where we'd be staying." She reached into her satchel and took out a leather wallet filled with a few leaflets she knew were blank, but would look like credentials to him, along with a couple of their many fake IDs.

"Right! Well, this is the parlour-"

"And what a beautiful parlour it is! Clearly you're a man of impeccable taste." He shut up when Rose shot him a look.

"The kitchen, of course, which will be shared like it said in the advert and here's the room…" His voice trailed off as he exited the kitchen/parlour to the main hallway.

This time, the Doctor gave Rose a worried glance and she simply presented him with a smile.

"It's a bit small for two," Craig told Rose when she came into the bedroom. "This is Mark's old room. He owns the place - moved out about a month ago. An uncle he'd never even heard of died and left him a load of money."

"How convenient," she mumbled under her breath. That would be something else she and the Doctor would take care of when they were done here, then. "Well, here are our National Insurance Numbers, NHS numbers, and references."

"Is that a reference form the Archbishop of Canterbury?" He stared in astonishment.

"Yeah, the Doctor's a favourite of his, did him a favour and the Bishop does love his cricket."

"Are you two done yet?" the Doctor called out. "Dinner is served."

"Right, let's go." Before they could enter the kitchen again, however, Craig turned to Rose. "Where's your stuff?"

Rose looked down at her bag. "Um, well, we kind of came here a bit impromptu, but we'll get that sorted eventually. Does that mean you'll let us stay?"

"We're staying?" The Doctor's head popped out the door. "Awesome!" he exclaimed, before wincing. "Rose, how many times to I have to tell you not to ever let me say that again."

She simply stuck her tongue out at him.

As they settled down in the parlour, Owen on the single couch and the pair on the sofa, they tucked in. Rose continued her cursory search of the room and pointed at a black spot on a corner of the ceiling. Her fork halfway to her mouth, she paused. "What's that?"

"Ah! I suppose that's…dry rot?" Craig said after swallowing down his mouthful of omelette, though it sounded more like guesswork. "Or damp. Or mildew." She was right.

The Doctor craned his neck towards where she was pointing and Rose didn't like the look on his face. "Or none of the above.

"I'll get someone to fix it."

"No, I'll fix it. I'm good at fixing rot. Call me the Rotmeister." He furrowed his brow. "No, I'm the Doctor, don't call me the Rotmeister. Really, Rose, you need to stop me when I say things like this. Anyway, until then, I have the strangest feeling we shouldn't touch it."

She raised a brow at him and tried not to look at the stain. There was something about it that made her stomach turn.

"So, who lives upstairs?" the Doctor asked after a brief moment of silence.

"Just some bloke." Craig shrugged.

"What does he look like?" Rose asked curiously. Didn't he even know his name…? Craig seemed like the type of person who would be careful and not just let anyone in. Granted, they were in here against his will, mostly, but they'd done so with good reason (and the Doctor's impatience).

"Normal. He's very quiet." Suddenly there was a loud bang coming from above. "Usually." Polishing off the omelette, he praised the Doctor's culinary skills. "Where did you learn to cook?"

"Paris, in the eight-no, hang on. No, that's right, in the eighties," he corrected himself in a rush when she raised a brow at him again. Rose knew he usually didn't care about the propriety of time frames, but considering they'd be staying here for a week or so it'd be wise for them to fit in as much as possible (well, mostly him) and she was glad he'd thought that far ahead. Although it had been a while since she'd lived linearly (the same amount of time as the Doctor, really), she was still more aware of what terminology to use. The Doctor said it had to do with her 'human upbringing'.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're a bit weird?" Craig informed the Time Lord.

"Never stop," Rose said gaily. She noticed that Craig hadn't let go of the keys since they came in. He was keeping them close, keeping them safe. They must belong to someone very important to him. Perhaps Sophie… She saw that the Doctor had also zeroed in on them, but spoke up before he could say anything rude. "Is it really alright if we stay?"

Craig looked at both of them for a long while, before sighing. "If both of you are to stay here, it's going to have to be six hundred pounds rather than four."

"That seems fair." Rose nodded in agreement.

"And the Doctor here can cook, so it's good enough for me. Just… Mark and I had an arrangement? If you need me out of your hair, just give me a shout, okay? Otherwise, I'd appreciate it if you were…quiet." He seemed uncomfortable as he avoided Rose's eyes, his cheeks flushing red.

She had a feeling he wouldn't have been so bothered had it just been the Doctor. That was alright, though. She thought it was sweet.

"Why would we want that?" the Doctor asked, clueless.

Rose sighed and rolled her eyes (she'd been doing that a lot, recently). He was just so used to the TARDIS's walls blocking off sounds from their other companions, he didn't stop to think it wouldn't be the same here. "Don't worry, Craig," she directed herself at the young man. "We promise we won't be a bother. Thank you." Reaching into her bag again, she took out a few hundred pound notes. "Here's a six hundred deposit, and another six for this month." Picking up the plates, she took them to the sink to wash them. She heard Craig give the Doctor a set of keys, explaining which went to what door, and smirked when he exclaimed excitedly.

After settling in, Rose let the Doctor use the bathroom first before going in herself. As she was brushing her teeth, she stopped when she began feeling nauseated. Spitting out saliva and paste, she took deep breaths. Her vision tunneled and her heartbeat sped up. Rose gripped the sink tightly, hoping the feeling would go away soon. The room spun around her and she tried to call out to the Doctor, but she couldn't find her voice, and then… Then it just stopped. The world stood still, she could see clearly again, and the overwhelming urge to retch went away, but the sick feeling in her stomach still lingered. Why was she feeling like this? What happened?

Rinsing her mouth and splashing water on her face, Rose dried herself up and walked to her room. Entering, she heard the Doctor speaking with Amy and telling her he needed to pick up a few things. He whirled around and greeted her with a grin that soon slipped off when he saw the look on her face.

"What's wrong, love?" He looked at her, his hand twitching and she knew he was resisting the urge to go for the sonic screwdriver.

"I, I don't know," she admitted. "I haven't been feeling well since we arrived here and while I was in the loo, everything was spinning and…" She shrugged.

The Doctor pulled her in for a hug. "There's a localised time loop going on. I don't know what's happening upstairs, but we need to find out soon. The TARDIS is being affected; I should have realised you would be too."

Rose shook her head, face buried in his chest. "It's not your fault. We don't know what's going on, but we'll figure it out, yeah?" She looked up at him, sighing as he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers.

"Yes," he murmured against her, promising, "Together."