The door to the TARDIS closed and Rose leaned on it with a deep sigh.
"What was that for?" The Doctor asked, turning around to look at her with a smile. "Tired already? You can't be that out-of-practice, can you? I wasn't out for that long."
She smiled at him hesitantly. They had just spent their Christmas preventing the invasion of the earth, which had become a somewhat normal occurrence for her. The man now grinning at her, however, was something new. Instead of short black hair, the Doctor now had brownish curls that stuck up around his face. His ears were about three times smaller and he was very much on the skinny side. His personality was slightly different, as well... she had just begun to notice little things. Things that looked like habits developed over long years. Habits that the Doctor had never had before.
He had begun to fiddle around with the controls of the TARDIS but paused, looking at her. His gaze was more intense than she was used to, and her eyes dropped automatically. The Doctor flipped a switch and walked around the console toward her.
"I know it's... well, unusual, even for us," he said. "Regenerations are always very mind-boggling. But I am still the same Doctor that you know. I have all of the same memories. The living plastic, the Slitheen, Satellite Five..."
Rose nodded and smiled at him. "I know, of course. It's just... very different. Looking at the new face, I mean."
The Doctor grinned. "It's very different having a new face. Works in a whole different way." He made a few faces, startling her into a laugh. His smile grew wider. "I have an idea," he said. "Let's take a Sunday afternoon. Let's have our own little Christmas celebration."
He watched as her face lit up. "Sunday afternoons" were something they had started early on in their travels together. Rose, after all, was human, and she got very weary from all of their adventures. She had once asked for a Sunday afternoon off to simply relax in the TARDIS. The Doctor had whole-heartedly agreed. And so at least once a week they would take a "Sunday afternoon" to simply read or watch television... or sometimes, just talk.
"I think a Sunday afternoon is just what I need," she replied.
They ended up in the Doctor's library. One of his many regrets was that the library wasn't as big as he would have liked—he was often reminded that some of the books in his collection were the last existing books from Gallifrey. Today, however, he chased the thought away as he and Rose settled in the two chairs. It was a new regeneration—a fresh start.
He began fiddling with his hands; he bent his fingers around and cracked his knuckles and began to form shadow puppets on the wall. Rose let out a laugh. "What are you doing?"
"Well, every regeneration has its own little quirks. I'm trying to figure all mine out." He pursed his lips and gave a loud whistle. "Oh, I can whistle! Always comes in handy." He tried to snap his fingers. "Yup, got that too. Wonder if I can carry a tune. Give me a song, Rose."
She said the first one that popped into her mind. "Umm, Hey Jude."
The Doctor chuckled. "Oh, a brilliant choice. Alright then."
Rose settled back in her chair as he began to sing, in a very decent tenor. She found herself fascinated with this new Doctor. Sure, he most definitely was not the man she was accustomed to speaking to, but she saw bits and pieces of his familiar whimsical personality. She found herself looking straight into his eyes, wondering what color they were. The... the "old" Doctor's eyes were a sort of bluish-gray, but this one... their color was a very deep brown.
"What?" he asked suddenly, startling her.
"It's different, but..." She grinned at him. "I think I like it."
His smile softened. "Rose Tyler," he said, "you are absolutely perfect. Have I ever told you that?"
"Oh, once or twice," she said nonchalantly. But she felt a thrill of butterflies in her stomach, just as she had when the Doctor called her fantastic. Yes, this most definitely was the same man that she had fallen in love with. And if she was honest with herself... she did like his new appearance just a bit better than the last.
"Ah!" the Doctor shouted, scaring her again. He jumped up from his chair, his face lit with excitement. "I nearly forgot. I got you a Christmas present!"
He ran out of the library. Rose laughed as he bounded out of sight, thinking that he was like an overexcited puppy. Then she stood up herself, walking to one of the shelves in the corner of the library. She reached down in between two different books, feeling for the wrapped package she had placed there. Thank God she had hidden it here!
A few moments later the Doctor strolled back in, looking very pleased with himself. Rose looked him up and down, but he didn't seem to have anything with him. He plopped back down into his chair and put his arms behind his head.
"You're going to love me," he smirked.
Already do, she thought. She tossed the package at him. "We'll see about that. Mine first."
His face lit up, and his eyes met hers. "Aww, Rose. You didn't have to get me a gift."
She sat forward, putting a hand on his knee. For a moment he looked almost surprised, and then his eyes softened. "Doctor," she said sincerely, "you have given me the most wonderful gift I could ever get. Every day is a new present, no matter where we go or what we do. And I will never be able to thank you enough."
"No, Rose, it's you I need to thank," he replied seriously. There was a brief moment of silence, but Rose thought she knew everything that the Doctor didn't say. How his companions were the only ones who kept him from brooding on how alone he really was. For a moment she thought he would continue, but then he cleared his throat. "Well! Let's open this up, shall we?"
She blinked a few times, having been lost in the intense scrutiny of his eyes again. By the time he peeled the paper away she had composed herself.
The Doctor looked at the gift for a few moments, his face expressionless. Rose found herself panicking just a little. Oh, God, did he not like it? "It's—you remember—when Mum invited us for tea on my birthday. And she insisted on taking a photo? I just thought—you know—I've never really seen any pictures around, and I thought maybe you'd like one. In the TARDIS, I mean..." She trailed off nervously.
His eyes flicked up to meet hers. He knew that all of his companions would one day leave him. They were human. They grew old and weary, or their adventures led to death or disaster. Only he remained, he and the TARDIS. He never forgot the names, but the faces and the expressions eventually faded from his memories. 900 years tended to make everything a little blurry around the edges.
"Rose, it's perfect," he said quietly. The Doctor looked down at it again. He remembered it well—Rose's 20th birthday. They had stopped off on the day to have tea and cake with Jackie. Mickey had been out of London for some reason or other, so it had been a mostly enjoyable visit. This picture showed the Doctor wiping a piece of frosting on Rose's nose. He hadn't realized that Jackie took a picture. They were both smiling and laughing. He felt a rush go through him as he looked at Rose's smile. He didn't think he had ever seen such a beautiful expression.
He looked up and saw the expression right in front of him. "You really do like it, then?" Rose asked a little hesitantly.
"Love it!" he declared. He set it aside, knowing exactly where he was going to put it. "And now, Rose Tyler, here is a present straight to you from me." He reached into the inside pocket of his suit. Rose was so used to the movement that she half-expected him to pull out the sonic screwdriver, but instead he came up with a small cloth bag with a string around it. Something clicked inside it as he cupped it in the palm of his hand.
"There's nothing alive in there, right?" Rose asked, surveying the bag both curiously and cautiously.
"Why don't you find out?" He placed the bag in her outstretched hand and sat back.
Rose pulled on the string and tugged the top open. She was surprised when the light hit her eyes and she squinted. Then she gasped.
The Doctor watched her as she shook out the objects. "I've got a friend who is amazing with glass-blowing and the like. I'll take you to his shop sometime. I got this a few weeks ago, actually, when we stopped by the planet with the orange sky. That was when you were talking to the fellow with all those tentacles? I snuck off for this."
The marbles sparkled and glittered in her palm. Rose plucked one gently with two fingers and held it up, narrowing her eyes. "Is this... a planet?" she whispered.
He leaned forward in her chair, squinting to look. "Each one of these marbles has a planet or galaxy inside it. Every star, every meteor is replicated exactly. You'd need a magnifying glass to see it properly. And this one..." He took it from her, looked at it closely for a long moment, and then handed it back. "This one happens to be Gallifrey."
Rose's eyes snapped to his. He smiled at her, although the expression was just a little sad. She brought it closer to her face, both fascinated and sorrowful. "It's very beautiful," she murmured.
"Yeah, it is." Lithe fingers wrapped around her wrist and he pulled her arm closer, picking among the marbles she held. "All of these planets are places we've visited, too. Requested them specially. Ah, here we go! The home planet of our very own Rose." He picked it up and they traded.
The earth was a little blue and green orb in the center of the marble. If she looked very hard and squinted, she could just make out the tiny land masses. Stars glittered around it, actually shining with their own light. "This is amazing."
The Doctor had been gazing at the Gallifrey marble. Blinking a bit, he dropped it into the pile and said, "You really do like it, then?"
"I love it!"
His entire face lit up in a smile. That was another feature that had been passed on in the regeneration. The Doctor never smiled with just his mouth. It was as though his entire being smiled when he was in a good mood. And this was the happiest she had seen him in... well, it had been a while.
"There's just one problem with it," she added.
Rose smiled as his expression fell for just a moment. Then he raised an eyebrow and half-smiled, sensing she was teasing. "Oh? And just what would that be?"
She held up the drawstring bag. "Lookit how small this is! If you're going to be adding every place we ever visit, it's going to have to be a lot bigger than this little piece of cloth."
His grin grew again. "Right you are, Rose Tyler. We're going to need about ten of those for all of the places I'm planning to take you. And we're starting tomorrow."
She felt her heart beginning to pump just a little faster, as it always did at the prospect of a new adventure. Recalling what he had said just before he regenerated, she asked, "Barcelona?"
The Doctor winked at her. "Barcelona."
Every so often, during the night, when the TARDIS was spinning lazily among the stars and the two were resting up for the next morning's adventures, Rose would pull out that little drawstring bag and open it. Her face would glow with the lights from a thousand stars and she would pick out one in particular and gaze at it. Gallifrey, the world that no longer existed, just as the Doctor had always described it. And later she would close her eyes and fall asleep and dream of that faraway world, feeling a strange sense of nostalgia for the place she had never set a foot on… and never would.