The Slow Path – Chapter 2

"Well, that was successful," muttered Rose, only slightly irritated to a point beyond belief. Not.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry..." the Doctor apologised.

"So. Looks like we're a bit stuck," she said, looping her arm through his tiredly.

"Right. I suppose...oh dear...I suppose we are going to have to find a...a..." he replied, shuddering.

They'd been into the city, attempted to find the TARDIS, failed at that; attempted to reason with the police, failed at that; attempted to fight the police, failed even more at that. And now they had been issued a 'warning.' Apparently, if they wanted any sort of chance of not going to prison, let alone leaving this planet with their 'unregistered vehicle,' they definitely had to pay their fine (which had now been increased, thanks to the Doctor's inability to be polite to rather hostile humans.)

Which meant they had to find a place to stay, immediately.

"A flat, Doctor," she finished for him. "Look, don't worry, we'll be fine."

He stopped walking and turned her to face him, lightly holding her head in his hands. "You know what? Of course we will. I'm sorry. I'll try to stop being so pessimistic. This'll be an adventure!" he said, suddenly enthusiastic, pulling her into a hug. Rose immediately relaxed into the hug, relishing in the feel of his arms around her waist. Every time he hugged her she felt so...close to him. So comforted. So content.

Oh dear. She thought perhaps that she should really stop getting so worked up over hugs. They didn't mean anything. Not to him. He handed out hugs to other people like jelly babies.

Sort of.

But not in the same way he hugged her.

"Come on," he murmured into her ear, leaning down, and as his cheek brushed hers he couldn't help but feel a slight jolt of something go through him. He was still getting used to that; the way Rose made him feel. Because honestly? He'd never felt like this before. It was all very undignified, and extremely unnerving.

He suddenly thought that maybe he should stop being so overly close to her, otherwise she was going to work out just how much he enjoyed it. Which couldn't happen. It was all very well him feeling these...feelings, but Rose couldn't know. No one could.

They came out of their hug and linked hands, (he wasn't going to stop holding her hand. He'd just have to stop accidently-on-purpose brushing his arm/leg/cheek against hers first chance he got) and carried on walking towards a massive building with a sign proclaiming 'Homing Squad.' He assumed this was the Kalo equivalent of an estate agency.

Inside the building, there were rows of open office areas with employees sitting at their desks fiddling with bits of stationary, looking very bored. One female worker, pounding a stapler against the side of her desk irritably, was situated near the entrance, and she looked up as the Doctor and Rose stepped in. A delighted smile spread over her face. Jumping up to greet them – or rather, to gain their custom before one of her colleagues could – she held out her hand.

"Hello there!" she cried cheerfully, "My name's Rita! Would you like some help finding a new home?"

The Doctor tugged at his ear, a little nervous for some reason. Nevertheless, he answered Rita's question. "Yes please. We aren't exactly familiar with the area, and we're just looking for a flat to rent. Short-term."

"Ah yes, sit, sit," she said, gesturing to the chairs in front of her desk. Glancing at their joined hands, Rita nodded knowingly. "So, this is just a small flat, yes? To rent? Before the big plans of a large house, am I right?"

The Doctor and Rose glanced at each other quizzically. "No..." Rose began.

"Just the one bedroom, yes?" Rita said, "For now, anyway." She winked at them, and Rose looked at the floor, biting her lip to keep from laughing. That's when she noticed her hand was still tightly in the Doctor's. He seemed to notice this at the same time, because they both abruptly pulled their hands apart.

When the Doctor didn't say anything, Rose felt she had to. "Um, actually, we're not...we're not married," she told Rita, laughing nervously.

Realisation seemed to dawn on the woman's face. "Ohhh. I see," she smiled knowingly. "You're not married yet. Well, it's alright, I won't tell anyone. It's not that much of a bigger deal anymore; unmarried youngsters sharing a home. In fact, I myself live with a young man – Eerov, his name is. Of course, we can't afford to get married yet, the prices of weddings have soared this year, haven't they? But well, we couldn't wait to, you know, so we decided 'to hell with it,' and here we are..." she rambled, while Rose and the Doctor looked at her, mouths hanging open a little.

Trust us to pick the estate agent who can't stop talking, Rose thought.

"Erm, sorry, don't mean to be rude – I'm like that, you see," he started for the second time that morning, " - But please can we just find somewhere? Quickly? We don't have much time. Rose's mum is after us; doesn't like the idea of me eloping with her daughter – can't see why; I'm the perfect gent, I am. But there you go. She even slapped me once, you know. So anyway, we need a flat. Pronto," he told her, smiling sweetly.

Rose just rolled her eyes.

Trust him to enjoy making up some lies that they'd now have to follow for the whole time they were here, she thought.

She told him exactly that when they came out of the building.

"They weren't exactly lies...weellll, they weren't that far from the truth, if you think about it. Jackie did slap me after she was unimpressed about me taking you away," he rationalised, jingling the keys to their new flat in his pocket as they walked.

"Yeah, but then Rita committed fraud for you, by insisting that we say that we're 'Mr and Mrs Smith' on the paperwork so that it would be hard for Mum to trace us!" she exclaimed, instinctively intertwining her hand with his despite her slight annoyance with the man.

He smiled sheepishly. "All part of the adventure Rosie!"

"Um, 'Rosie?'" she asked dubiously.

He grinned down at her. "Would you rather I said 'Mrs Smith?'"

For some reason unknown to her, Rose blushed, and kept quiet the rest of the way, content to just listen to him rather than chance embarrassing herself. The Doctor simply held her hand tighter, chattering on about everything and nothing.

Eventually, they arrived at the block of flats, and the Doctor swung open the glass door animatedly, nearly knocking over an old woman.

"Oh dear! So sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going...Rosie here was distracting me," he apologised to the woman, while Rose sent a death glare his way.

"That's quite alright, love. I know what these young girls are like with their men these days. Quite disgraceful, some of them, eh?" she said, then cackled hysterically, nudging him in the ribs with her elbow.

"Oh yes, especially this one," the Doctor replied, grinning in amusement, and it seemed it was contagious, as Rose began to laugh too.

Calming herself down, the old woman introduced herself. "I'm Leila, by the way, Leila Mackie."

"Nice to meet you, Leila. I'm Rose, and this is the Doctor," Rose told her. "We're just moving into flat 405."

"Oh, how lovely! Although, I notice no rings. You're not married then?" Leila said, trying to look stern when actually she was quite amused by this new way of people living together without being married.

To avoid having to change their 'cover story,' Rose falsely corrected her. "No, we are. We just..." she trailed off.

"...lost the rings. In an accident. Not very pleasant, don't like to talk about it," picked up the Doctor.

"Oh, sorry dears, didn't mean to...anyway, I best be off! I've got shopping to do, you see, only I was distracted by overhearing those two women over there talking about how the police have been wandering around, they don't usually do that unless there's been a crime - well, obviously - but there's hardly any crime around here, see, are there? No. Not since the new Dictatorship; you know, a lot stricter laws and such now," she told them, and then, in a hushed tone, "Apparently some unregistered vehicle's been obtained, and they are keeping an eye out for the couple in case they do anything else wro - "she paused when she noticed Rose biting her lip and the Doctor looking at her with a smile tugging the corners of his mouth. " –hang on. Are you two...? You're new here...Oh god, it's you isn't it?" Mrs Mackie gasped.

Rose nodded, trusting this woman completely. "Please don't, you know, alert them. I've got to try and keep this one..." she pointed to the Doctor, "...under control until we get the TAR – our vehicle - back," she corrected herself.

Mrs Mackie nodded. "Well, be careful, love. And don't get into anymore trouble," she said, turning to walk away. Then she turned to face them again. "What does your vehicle look like? I'm a bit...nosy, sorry."

"That's alright. Um...it's sort of...well, it's blue and it's a box, and it's got 'Police Public Call Box' written on it..." described Rose. The Doctor watched her admiringly. He had no clue what she was saying; he was just admiring the way her hair looked all windswept and golden now that the light was reflecting off of the glass doors onto it and...oh dear, he thought. He really needed to stop this strange problem where he got all distracted, thinking about Rose Tyler too much. He cleared his throat meaningfully.

"Right, so Leila, if you could keep an eye out for it, that'd be great. Rose and I are going to go and get acquainted with our new home," he said, pulling Rose away. Mrs Mackie smiled and waved her goodbyes, before exiting the block.

"Bless her," Rose said. The Doctor chuckled, leading Rose over to the lift. "Um, Doctor? Quick question. You said this was the future, right? So why is everyone so newly liberal to the idea of two unmarried people living together? As if it's only recently that it's been accepted?"

"Weeelll, I suppose this society is still quite traditional. Sounds like a strict legal system they have here. This place isn't quite at the 'so many species, so little time' stage, I don't think, despite humans inhabiting it," he answered, winking at her.

They enter the lift and Rose nods in agreement. "So, what do you reckon the flat's gonna be like, then?" she asked him, pressing the button for the fourth floor.

"Dunno, but I hope it's got one of those tea-making things!" he said excitedly.

"What, a kettle?" she asked sarcastically, giving him a funny look.

"That's the thing!" he said.

"We have a kettle on the TARDIS, Doctor," she told him, reaching up and patting his head patronisingly. Well, as patronisingly as she could, considering he was a foot taller than her.

"I know that. But this is different. It will be a kettle, in a kitchen, in a flat. Good job we got a furnished one, eh? Don't have to go shopping for stuff. A furnished flat with a kettle included. And a sofa and a washing machine and a...bed..." he trailed off.

"Yeah," Rose said slowly, "About the bed thing. There's only one of them. Are you going to - " The ping of the lift interrupted her, and the Doctor bounded out quickly, avoiding that conversation.

"Right, 405," he muttered to himself, looking at each door they pass. "Aha! Here it is!" he cried, stopping so quickly that Rose bumped into him a little. He dug around in his pocket for a second and pulled out a banana. "Oh. Whoops. Ah, here they are," he said, finally pulling out the keys and dangling them in front of Rose's face.

She grinned at him and snatched them out of his hand, shoving it into the lock.

"No, wait!" he exclaimed, just as she was about to turn the handle.