Title: Taking the Plunge
Author:
Shen
Rating:
PG
Characters:
Rose, Ten, Donna, Jack, Gwen, Owen, Tosh, Ianto
Setting/Spoilers:
No spoilers whatsoever. Part of my Peril-verse (see my profile). Recap of said 'verse is at shengirl dot livejournal dot com/8390 dot html
Teaser:
Trouble in paradise! The Doctor's really done it now, and his friends suggest a rather drastic solution: Marriage?!

Author's Note: Concrit and comments appreciated!

Chapter 2: I Should Do What?!

When Donna received a call from the Doctor telling her to leg it to the TARDIS, she tried to ignore the flat tone of his voice. When she swung the doors open, it was with the full intention of verbally tearing apart its pilot, or at least pretending she was going to until she was promised a shopping trip or something in penance. Really, she understood that these things happened, but she had a reputation to upkeep. There were even a few great insults lined up, such as, "better off hauling a tuk tuk," "bananas-for-brains," and a comment about inhaling too much blonde hair dye affecting his steering. Rose was generally a good sport about hair jokes, and they both knew he liked to sneak sniffs of her hair when he thought Donna wasn't looking.

However, when Donna opened the TARDIS doors, she only got as far as, "Four da-" before all the insults died on her lips. The Time Lord's shoulders were sloped, he looked miserable, and he was alone.

"What happened?" she asked, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice. Four extra days left at home, listening to her mother's nagging, and not even a good row to make herself feel better. Sometimes, she cursed this conscience of hers.

He straightened and said with painfully obvious false brightness, "Miscalculated; sorry! I was... distracted when I was landing."

"Not that; where's Rose?"

"Cardiff. She's sort of angry at me. And by angry, I mean not speaking to me. Stalked off for a while." He had deflated a little while he spoke. Donna winced. It usually took a crowbar and Atlas to pry those two apart when one wasn't in the bathroom or sleeping, and sometimes even showering wasn't a solitary activity. If it weren't for girls only nights and Doctor/Donna TARDIS-flying lessons (she hadn't caught up to Rose yet), the redhead would've had them committed somewhere. So this kind of fight couldn't be good.

"Did you deserve it?" she asked, not unkindly. The last of his bravado leeched away, and he glanced at the ground when he answered.

"Probably." Donna gave a long-suffering sigh.

"Alright, Spaceman; tell me all about it."


"I so would have killed you," Donna remarked to the Doctor as the pair stepped out the TARDIS door. Then, she stopped and stared at the two Torchwood personnel. "What're you two sniggering at?"

"Welcome back!" greeted Jack, breezing past her question. "And Donna, a pleasure as always." She fixed him with another second's glare before relenting.

"You're lucky you look so good in braces, Leela." Jack bristled slightly, disliking the nickname. Because he was a man of the future, he'd earned the moniker of Futurama's sassy pilot whenever Donna was peeved with him. The wrist strap didn't help his case.

"You have no idea how much I have to rely on that, Fry," he countered with a smirk.

"Jack, there is no end to the inspiration I can derive from your heroism and maturity."

"Shut up, Owen. Now, Doctor, I was thinking. You said Rose has been on edge with you a lot lately. Other than that, has there been any change in your relationship?" Looking at him, it seemed the Doctor was cheered somewhat by their antics. Jack was pleased, and knowing the Doctor, getting him working on a solution would pull him out of the rest of his funk. Now, the situation was just a puzzle, like so many things in his long life, rather than an impossible conundrum, like women usually were.

"Nope," he answered gamely. "Traveling and running and everything like always, just the same as before she left, except Donna's along. And she loves Donna."

"We prank him and everything. I don't think he uses the loo anymore without checking behind the shower curtain first, the number of times we've put noise-making things in his tub," Donna explained with relish. It earned her a glare from the Doctor, but Jack just made a humming noise.

"That might just be your problem, Doc. You're acting like things were before you ever got separated, when she had her mother to return to and a place on Earth if she wanted it. She may not have ever wanted to go home for good, but it was there should she ever have to. Now it's not."

"What're you getting at?"

"I think I know," Donna answered for him. Then, with a total lack of delicacy, she explained, "He thinks you should marry her."

"What?!" The Doctor's voice had raised an octave or two, and the word "incredulous" barely covered his expression. Typical Doctor reaction. "How did this get to marriage? We were talking about her being angry about this one thing! A proposal's kind of overdoing the apology, don't you think?"

Jack said, "Now, hear me out, Doctor! You said yourself that this is just the latest symptom of a greater problem. And like I said before, things are different with you two. Rose might want different things."

He sputtered, "But- but- she said she didn't want to!"

"Maybe she didn't know she wanted to. Might've been the furthest thing from her mind. Women are allowed to change their minds, you know."

Owen chimed in, "It's practically their birthright."

"Well, how was I supposed to know she'd changed her mind if she doesn't tell me?" the Doctor asked plaintively, coming perilously close to a whine. Jack rolled his eyes.

"Doctor, you're kidding. Do you really think she'd bring it up with you?"

"Why not? I'm not a psychic!" He blinked at that statement. "Well, I am, but... I don't pry."

"Do you have any sense of how much bitching you did about domestics in your last body? The word was practically a swear."

"Actually, with you, it was a euphemism. When I was impressing upon you how little I appreciated your libido-fueled antics in relation to my TARDIS. 'Keep the domestics away from me, Harkness,' meant, 'No sex in the TARDIS, or so help me I'll drop you on the next planet we find that's set aside for chaste, religious contemplation.'"

Ignoring that tirade, Jack continued, "It makes sense that it would be getting to her, though. You go to a planet. What do you call her when someone asks who she is to you? Girlfriend? That doesn't quite cover it anymore. Friend's right out. And if you pretend to be married, well, what, is she only good enough to be your pretend wife when it's convenient? And it never crosses that vast mind of yours to make it official? I'm... actually completely talking out of my ass right now, but it could well be happening that way in her head." Everyone in the room was staring at him.

"What? You spend a few centuries interacting with women; you learn things."

Donna cut in, "Or you watch too much telly, and it rots your brain. But in this case, you might be onto something. Rose winces just a bit whenever someone actually makes you put a label to the pair of you. Probably because even she doesn't know what to call it. You're joined at the brain, for heaven's sake; what's the word for that?" She stopped to consider that point, then slowly turned back to the Doctor. "Do you want to get married, Doctor? I actually want to know." He was staring at her wide-eyed, and Jack new he was struggling to reconcile this new information with past experience, probably matching the mentioned situations with little bits of discontent that wafted off of his lover from time to time. After several moments, he answered.

"I... don't know."


He really didn't know. Thoughts of it hadn't drifted past his mind since the mortgage conversation on Krop Tor; it just wasn't a normal aspect of his personal worldview. Other people got married. Not him.

"Well, the way I figure, it comes down to this. She probably wants to. Does it make any difference to you?" He pondered. And he thought. And he gave a real, old-fashioned cogitation. It shouldn't make a difference, really. He and Rose were quite well-joined as it was. "At the brain," as Donna so aptly put their mental bond. He wasn't sure what some ceremony was going to change, except the title.

That fact began turning over in his mind. The aforementioned title confusion would be gone. Meaning Rose would be unequivocally his, obvious to anyone at all. Anyone who'd know what a ring meant. That might possibly be nice. It might keep the alien flirting down to a minimum, and a ring could be removed for the odd session of "distract the guard." And then it began to hit him that he actually did want to marry Rose Tyler. Or, at least, there wasn't a thing he could think of against it, and pros kept popping up. Maybe it would be a bit human. Okay, incredibly human, but that was all his consistent associations were made up of nowadays anyway.

"You know," Owen chimed in suddenly, "until you marry her, you're basically her sugar daddy." All cogitations stopped, and the Doctor gaped like a freshly-slapped fishmonger.

Jack, on the other hand, looked delighted at the point.

"He's-" he stopped to snicker, "kind of right, Doctor. I mean, she's legally dead. Entirely reliant on you. Unbelievably younger than you, and you're not married. Sugar daddy." The Doctor looked to Donna for help, but she was too busy trying to bite back raucous laughter.

"Well... we can't have that!" he finally managed. Jack finally calmed himself and spoke gently.

"You don't have to do anything about it now, Doc. Teasing aside, it's best not to be rash if you're not sure. Just something to consider. Now, if you want the address of a really great florist in town, I can give that to you for today's spat."

"No..." the Doctor answered, miles away for a moment. Then, he snapped back to reality. "We don't put things off if we know we want them now. That's our policy, Rose's and mine. She always says-" he choked "she says that life's too short. And there's not a single reason to not marry the love of my life, so you'd best help me start thinking of jewelers rather than florists."