The Domestic Approach

Summary: The days of rampaging the universe have come to an end for the Doctor, but he still has Rose by his side as they embark on an entirely new adventure together. This journey will not be as easy as it sounds, and the Doctor and Rose will face challenges they never imagined as the Old Team tries the domestic approach. Ten/Rose. (rather dark at first, but will get happier)

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

Author's Note: Thank you for reading my story! Please review and let me know if there is anything you can offer advice on!

II

It's all easier said than done, Rose thinks to herself as she watches the Doctor dry dishes. Two days have passed since he told her he was ready to give this life a chance, but little progress has actually been made. Rose sets the last plate on the counter for him and turns off the faucet. She leans against the counter and folds her arms across her chest.

"Are you alright?" she asks the Doctor. He smiles at her but his eyes don't light up, and she feels her heart drop to her stomach.

"Just fine, Rose." He says. She nods slowly and watches him put the plate in the cupboard. He turns to her. "Why, do I seem off?" he asks. She shakes her head and unfolds her arms before walking to him.

"N-no." she lies, "just making sure." She flashes him one of her tongue smiles and his eyes dart to her mouth, that strange feeling filling his gut as he watches her tongue dart back inside her teeth.

"Great!" he says and crosses into the living room. Rose follows him and together they sit on the couch. An awkward silence falls over them and the Doctor announces he is going to go to sleep early.

"Oh," Rose says. "Alright. Night, Doctor." He grins at her and leans in to kiss her forehead before he stops himself. It's something he would have done in the past without a second thought, but something about it seems strange here. He clears his throat.

"Night." He says quietly and stands up. Rose closes her eyes as he walks away and leans her head back against the sofa.

The Doctor doesn't sleep. She knows this for a fact. He could survive two days on three hours of rest; it's the curse of the Time Lord. Or one of them, at least. She knows he is unhappy. She understands why.

He traveled the universe for hundreds of years. His normal was fighting for his life and spinning through space awaiting the next adventure. She loved that life, but it wasn't her normal. Coming back to a life of steady scheduling was easy for her because it's how she grew up. She'd be a fool to say she doesn't miss chasing aliens, of course she does, but the reason that made her love it so much was sleeping in the next room.

Rose wasn't the Doctor's reason for traveling through space, though. That's where their problems are all coming from. She is perfectly content to grow old with the Doctor, and there was a time she thought he was ready to let her. In that year they had traveled before the war, romance had started to evolve between them. He had taken her on dates, slept in her bed and held her all night. There were pecks on the cheek, and after one particularly terrible day when Rose almost died, there were tears from the Doctor that still haunt her dreams. And a kiss that stood to test the end of time. Rose had never felt so much from one kiss, and that kiss led to something much more. From that day on, they were like a couple. They held hands more than they already did, something Rose would have sworn was impossible. They surprised each other with breakfast, they tickled each other, teased each other, and Rose fell more in love with him each passing day. They never labeled their relationship, they never had sex. It was just a friendship that clearly held more for both of them, but after the war with the Master it ceased. The Doctor was just too broken, and Rose knows better than to push intimacy on him now. What he needs is a friend.

Rose sighs to herself. She needs to be patient and understanding. He's trying, and she can't imagine how this adjustment must freak him out. Her eyes flutter open and she reads the time on the clock to her left. 8:46. She groans and decides she might as well sleep too, and gets up to go brush her teeth.

As she walks down the hallway she hears a whimper come from behind a closed door. It's the Doctor's room, and Rose feels her heart skip a beat as she imagines him curled on the bed crying. She stands in front of the door for a moment, but when the whimper gets stronger she stops thinking clearly and bursts through the door.

The Doctor is not crying. No, he is lying on his back with a hand dipped into his boxers. His face looks like it's in pleasure, but once he hears Rose open the door his hand breaks free, he lets out a scream, and falls off of the bed in surprise. Rose's cheeks are a crimson shade as she puts together what she just witnessed, and she stutters as she tries to apologize.

"Doc…I'm…er…You….I….Sorry!" she squeaks and closes the door quickly.

The Doctor stares at the spot Rose was in with his mouth hanging open. His hand comes to slap his forehead as he groans from embarrassment and sinks down to the ground. He hits himself a few times and then just lays there, trying to figure out if he should try and make up a cover story to tell her or if he should act like it never happened.

Or, should he tell her who he was thinking about?

Ew, no. Don't do that, he thinks to himself. You want to scare her away, you idiot? She's all you have left. The Doctor's mind is contemplating a thousand ideas but he decides his best choice is to just go to sleep. He'll see Rose in the morning and he can decide how to handle this then. The only problem is he can't sleep. He's not the least bit tired. He decides to wait an hour, surely by then Rose will be in her room, before he gets up to go make some hot milk. Yes, that will calm his nerves for sure.

He opens the door slowly, knowing if he does it too fast it will creak and might wake Rose up. He wraps his robe around his body and ties it in a knot as he heads to the kitchen, but the faint glow of a candle stops him in his tracks. Is Rose awake? Of course she would be awake, that's just his luck. He closes his eyes to brace himself as he walks into the kitchen. Sure enough, Rose is sitting at the table with a single candle lighting the room. She doesn't hear him come in, but he clears his throat to make his presence known.

"Oh!" Rose cries and quickly clears her throat as well. "I thought you'd be asleep by now." She says. The Doctor shrugs.

"Could say the same bout you." He replies. Rose smiles a small smile and looks down at her hands. She bites her lip before she looks up at the Doctor.

"I'm really sorry about –" she begins to say, but the Doctor's eyes grow wide and his hands fly up to stop her.

"No, no, no! Rose, I'M sorry, I mean –" he tries to say but Rose continues to talk, and they are speaking simultaneously.

"I should've knocked-" Rose says.

"I should've locked –" The Doctor adds.

"I was worried you were crying –" Rose states.

"I never meant for you to see me-" the Doctor says, very awkwardly.

"I'm so sorry, I think it's best if –" Rose begins.

"I mean, I was thinking about you-" the Doctor blurts out, not thinking. Rose stops talking and stares at him. You idiot, he thinks. I told you NOT TO TELL HER THAT. WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID?! The voice yelling at him has a distinct northern accent and he grimaces. Of course. His face is like a cherry tomato and he is mentally cursing himself in every language he knows. He clears his throat. "I mean…No, I didn't mean it like that, I just meant I needed a distraction from worrying about you, you know?" He says, a forced laugh accompanying his lie at the end. "I did not mean it the way it sounded, Rose…" he says. Rose is still staring at him. The dim light from the candle is casting a shadow on his face that accents his handsome features in a way Rose had never thought possible, and she finds herself smiling. She knows she should be disgusted, maybe even feel a little violated. But knowing the Doctor was getting off to the idea of her was giving her a high she had never felt before. Her smile turned into an idiotic grin, and the Doctor felt his stomach flip over. He just broke Rose.

"Are you okay?" he asks. She comes back to reality at the sound of his voice and nods her head, her smile falling.

"Course, Doctor!" she says. She knows how embarrassed he is, and she decides to leave him to his thoughts for now. Still, she doesn't want him to think she hates him, so as she gets up to leave she gives his hand a squeeze. His eyes soften at the gesture and a small smile twitches at the edge of his mouth. "I'm going to go to sleep now, Doctor. I will see you in the morning, okay? I'll make breakfast." She tells him. His heart feels a little less heavy now, and the embarrassment from his outburst has started to subside. He nods his head and watches as Rose walks down the hallway to her room. He waits until he hears the door go click before he smiles himself. She squeezed his hand after all of that. She doesn't hate him!

The milk doesn't seem to be quite as needed but the Doctor makes some anyway. Once he takes a few sips he decides he already feels more tired and walks back to his room to go to sleep. He still can't, and he lies on the pillow with his mind roaming.

He thinks back six months ago, back when everything started to get weird. His mouth frowns as he remembers he had taken Rose to Earth in her own time because he had planned on taking her out a date. He had planned on officially asking her if she wanted to be with him. He had lost her once before, and he would be an idiot if he continued to ignore his feelings now that he had her back a second time.

They never got to go on that date. Everything had changed and the TARDIS was lost. Despite all of his best efforts, the Doctor couldn't think about a relationship anymore. At least, not yet. He had to figure out how he was going to live a normal life. It was supposed to be the one adventure he could never have, but it seems the stars don't want him anymore.

That's the hardest part. He doesn't mind living on Earth having Rose by his side because that makes everything so much easier. He knows he treats her like a jerk, but he is too conflicted to be nice all the time. It hurts, knowing that space kicked him out. The Master was tied to space too, and together they cut him off. The hardest part is knowing there is so much more that needs saving, so much more exploring to be done, and he can't do any of it. Even after 900 years, he has barely put a dent in exploring the universe.

He doesn't remember what it's like to play the role of husband. Essentially that's what he's doing. He and Rose have a cottage and are living off of psychic paper money, and they are creating a life for themselves. On Gallifrey, though, building a life with someone is not like building one on Earth. The companionship with Rose is different than with his wife, and he just doesn't know where to start. His dreams are filled with nightmares of worlds dying because he isn't there to stop it. Every waking moment is a battle between being there with Rose and worrying about the universe.

He knows the psychic paper will run out soon and they will have to get jobs. He gets a nauseous feeling in his stomach when he thinks about that. It's just going to make it all so much more real. He'd never admit it to Rose, but part of him wishes Jack would find his way back to them so they could travel space with him. He misses it, and it doesn't matter how kind and loving Rose is to him, he always will.

Still, he knows he can't live out the time he has with Rose moping. He should enjoy it, because she is only going to be here for maybe 70 years if she's lucky, and he has forever. That's another reason this is all so hard. If they were traveling, losing Rose could be masked by the universe and he would feel like he moved on even though he knows he never will. Here, though, there will be too many reminders of her. Not that there wouldn't be on the TARDIS, it's just that here, on Earth, there is not one thing that won't remind the Doctor of her once she is gone.

Rose, he thinks to himself. Oh, his beautiful Rose. He doesn't deserve her. He knows how she feels about him, and he would be lying to himself if he said he didn't feel the same. She is the one who has always found a way back to him. He smiles as he remembers that time she told him, "They keep trying to split us up but they never ever will." He remembers looking at her, sadness creeping into his chest as he replied,

"Never say never ever."

Looks like they were both right. The universe split them up, but Rose brought them back together. She's brilliant, she is. No one he has ever met has shown the same compassion Rose has. She cares, almost to a fault, but it's something that makes him love her. There, he thinks to himself, he admitted it.

"I love Rose." He whispers in the darkness. The words ring in his ears and he finds himself smiling. "I love Rose." He repeats. It sounds so natural, so free. He continues to lie in bed trying to decide what this means.

The universe may have kicked him out of fighting, but it gave him an entirely new adventure. One he never thought he could have in a million years. A life with Rose. A life with a mortgage and kids…

Okay! Don't get too ahead of yourself, the northern voice rings in the Doctor's head. You still have to tell her how you feel and make up for the last sixth months.

The Doctor nods and closes his eyes. He lets sleep take him away and for the first time in sixth months he doesn't dream of destruction and death, but of Rose. Sweet, sweet Rose, and she is smiling at him. For the first time in sixth months, he feels safe.

A/N: Alright! Thanks for reading! Next chapter up soon.