Winter in New York
A Doctor Who tale - Nine and Rose
By June "KaraOhki" Geraci
March 19, 2019
Note: I do not own Doctor Who or its characters, they belong to the BBC.
The Doctor was underneath the console, having finally discovered the cause of several frayed wires. He pulled the unhappy field mouse and her newly-built nest out, patiently enduring her squeaks as she scolded him.
"Now then, Missus, you've no business building a nest in my TARDIS! Get outside where you belong, silly thing! I said no. Stop arguing!"
Laughter from above him caused the Doctor to look at the jump seat, where Rose was observing the entire scene. He walked up and handed her the nest, causing her to squeak.
"You sound alike. Let's get Missus somewhere warm and safe where she can have her babies."
Rose finally caught her breath enough to ask "She was arguing with you?"
"Yes. I speak mouse."
Another round of giggles. "Of course you do."
Rose cradled the nest while the Doctor set the coordinates and sent the TARDIS off to a quiet meadow near a small farm. She watched, bemused, while he fussed around to find a suitably sheltered place to relocate their stowaway. Her grumpy, prickly Doctor was taking so much trouble for such a tiny creature. She liked it.
Once "Missus Mouse" was settled in her new home, the Doctor led Rose back to the TARDIS, where a set of flashing lights greeted them.
"Distress signal. New York City. We can't let that one slide, can we?"
DWDWDWDWDWDW
"You landed in a cemetery."
"Do you have a problem with that?"
Rose pointed at the city. "We couldn't park there?"
"Last time I got towed. Let me figure out where the signal is coming from first, and I'll move the old girl closer."
The Doctor was taking his time narrowing down the location of the signal, so Rose decided to do a little exploring on her own. The TARDIS had warm outerwear ready at the door for her, and Rose's boots crunched as she traversed the snowy paths in the early morning light. She read many inscriptions, and felt a bit sad. At nineteen, she hadn't spent a lot of time contemplating the end of her existence, but being here brought it home. She was reading a stone over the shared grave of a Rory and Amelia Williams when the Doctor appeared in the TARDIS doorway and called her back in. For half a moment Rose thought she heard movement behind her, but she was more than ready to return.
"It's coming from Central Park. That makes it easy - no one will disturb her if we park there."
"Central Park? What's that?"
"You're kidding, right? Come on, let's get you educated."
DWDWDWDWDWDW
Rose was properly impressed with the park - it was huge! The Doctor had put the TARDIS down near a stone bridge, where it was being completely ignored by the few hardy souls that were walking the paths. Not one to normally make concessions for weather, the Doctor was wearing a fur hat and a ridiculously long striped scarf, which looked like it was going to trip him up, despite the fact that he'd wound it around his neck several times. Rose restrained herself (with difficulty) from making any comments, as the Doctor was busy squinting at the readouts from his hand held signal detector.
"Under the bridge. Of course, where else would they hide? Good thing I've got my boots on."
The Doctor grumbled as he made his way down the bank, and Rose watched as he splashed his way to one of the stone supports. He reached into a crevice and headed back with his hands full of something brown, fuzzy and squeaky. Actually, it was several somethings, which he handed to Rose.
"Doctor, they're mice."
"Yes."
"But they're MICE!"
"Yes, they are. Or to be more specific, travelers from Lorina IV. Hang onto them while I fish their ship out of the water. I promised to help get it repaired so they can go home."
Rose stood there with her hands full of mice. They squeaked at her, and she desperately hoped none of the people on the bridge could see what she was holding. The Doctor soon joined her, shaking the water out of a shiny metal ship. She wondered how they piloted it. With their paws and teeth?
"No, Captain, Rose can't speak mouse. What? Yes, maybe she should learn. You lot tell the best jokes."
The Doctor took the ship to his workroom and placed it on one of the benches. Rose put the mice on the bench, and they swarmed inside, and soon water was being pumped out onto the floor. A few moments later a large dark brown mouse ran out and held a long conversation with the Doctor, waving its paws and squeaking excitedly. The Doctor turned to his cabinets and began pulling out various small parts, placing them near the door where they were soon pulled inside. It got very noisy, and several burned and broken components were tossed out the door. The large mouse came back out, dragging a piece of paper with schematics on it. After another discussion with the Doctor the mouse disappeared into its ship.
"This is going to take longer than we expected, Rose. The engineer asked me to fabricate a replacement part."
DWDWDWDWDWDW
A couple of hours later, Rose found the Doctor by the TARDIS doors, pulling his now dry boots back on. The small ship sat beside him, emitting a soothing hum. He grinned and gestured to the doors. "All done! Let's see them off."
The Doctor and Rose waved at the ship as it levitated over the bridge, before taking off in a blaze of light.
"Wow! I want one of those!"
A small boy ran up to the Doctor. "That was so cool! Where can I get one?"
Rose and the Doctor looked at one another. Apparently, despite their precautions, they had not been unobserved.
"Um, I think I bought it at FAO Schwarz," responded the Doctor. "You'd best get there fast, they were nearly sold out. We've gottogonicemeetingyou!" And they were gone, running hand in hand and laughing.
DWDWDWDWDWDW
The Doctor was a good tour guide, Rose mused, as they wandered around the city. He was in an unusually mellow mood, leading Rose in and out of shops, galleries, and museums. The only sour note was when he took issue with the description of an artifact in one of the museums. "They've got the year wrong, the name wrong, and the PURPOSE wrong!"
"How do you know?"
"I was there, Rose. You tend to remember the name and purpose of a weapon when someone's trying to remove your kidneys with it. Without anesthesia."
"Let's get lunch, Doctor." And Rose pulled him away from the offending exhibit.
DWDWDWDWDWDW
It was getting late in the afternoon, and Rose was somewhat tired when the Doctor pulled her to a vantage point over a large plaza. To Rose's surprise, the plaza was filled with ice skaters. Children, adults, and in particular an older couple skating hand in hand and beaming at one another.
"This is Rockefeller Center. Want to rent skates?"
"You can skate?"
"I'll have you know that I was on staff with the British ice dancing team in the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics."
Rose looked skeptical. "In what position?"
"Um, security."
So, no skating involved, I would guess?"
The Doctor looked suitably embarrassed. "No, but I kept Torvill and Dean from being cheated out of a gold."
"Who?"
"Rose, please tell me you are joking."
"I wasn't born yet, but never mind that. Tell me about the cheating."
The Doctor pulled Rose into the line for skate rentals. "I'll do you better. We can watch their performance tonight, all perfect scores! And those cheaters, well I made sure they fell. More than once."
"Doctor?"
"Nuxemians. Ice planet, they're practically born wearing skates. They weren't citizens of the country they were skating for. Arrogant too. Nope, I made sure they fell."
Rose finished lacing up her skates, laughing, and dragged her Doctor onto the ice.
DWDWDWDWDWDW
To her surprise, Rose discovered her Doctor could skate. In fact, he did well. Nothing fancy, forwards and a little backwards, and he spun her around a few times. The best part? His good mood was still there. No sarcasm, no sniping, just good fun. She couldn't remember the last time his blue eyes hadn't held a trace of sadness.
Some of the skaters were dancing across the ice, holding one another, and the Doctor asked Rose to give it a try with him. They weren't particularly graceful, but the thrill of it more than made up for that. Rose kept smelling something sweet, and wondered where it was coming from. Distracted, she missed a step and their skates became entangled. The Doctor made sure to hit the ice first, and Rose landed on top of him, head on his shoulder, his arms around her. She buried her nose in his scarf and hugged him. To her delight, he hugged back and kept holding her.
Why, she wondered, did his scarf smell like jelly babies?