Rose took her time with the coffee, sipping two cups as slowly as she could then pouring a mug for the Doctor with more care than necessary. Honestly, the sugar didn't require two dozen swipes of the spoon to dissolve into the dark, fragrant beverage, but she kept stirring just the same.
She walked back to the console room with desultory steps, determined to gather her energy and put on a show of vitality once she rejoined him. She paused for a moment outside the door, taking a deep breath and adjusting a cheerful smile across her face.
"Coffee's ready," she said brightly, striding up the ramp and handing the cup to the Time Lord.
He took it without standing, giving her a nod of thanks. His expression was somber, and she decided immediately that it would be best to leave him alone. She took a step back, saying, "I should turn off the pot—wouldn't want to cause a fire."
He reached for her hand. "Wait, Rose. Sit down."
He offered her a small, encouraging smile.
"I really should see to that pot—"
"TARDIS'll take care of it. She shuts off appliances if they get too hot." He patted the seat. "Sit."
She complied, sinking down beside him, trying to keep the smile on her face. "So, chocolate for supper, yeah? Never done that before."
He nodded. "You'll like it. They make a dry rub for meat, mix it with all sorts of spices."
"Really? I thought it'd just be hot cocoa and brownies."
He grinned thinly. "That's dessert, and only after a proper meal of chocolate meat."
She smiled in earnest at his words.
"And maybe," he continued, his voice dropping just a touch, "after a good meal you'll be able to sleep."
She opened her mouth to protest, but he shook his head.
"I know you haven't been sleeping well," he said. "It's not hard to see the signs." Now his gaze was fixed on her, intently enough that she wanted to look away, but something in his eyes held her. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I'm all right. Probably just havin' too much caffeine—"
"That's not it, Rose."
She shrugged rather helplessly. "Little insomnia's not that big a deal. An' you're one to talk—you almost never sleep."
"I do when I need to."
"An' I will, too."
He seemed to consider that for a few moments, then he asked, "How long have you had the headaches?"
"What?" How had he known about that?
He touched her forehead lightly with his fingertips. "When did they start?"
"Just yesterday," she replied softly.
"And how many have you had?"
"Only one."
He frowned. "It's lasted all this time?"
"No, 'course not—"
Now he clasped her hands in his. "Tell me the truth, Rose."
"It's nothin', just a little headache."
"And how often do you get headaches? I mean before you met me."
"Not much."
"And since meeting me?"
"This is the first one, I think."
He nodded gravely. "And the sleep difficulties?" The little quirk of his eyebrow told her that he expected an honest answer.
"Jus' the last few nights."
"Since Jackie's?"
Rose acknowledged this with a small inclination of her chin. "But it's nothin', really. I'm fine."
He placed his palms upon her cheeks, resting the first two fingers of each hand against her temples. Gently he tilted her head so that he could look directly into her eyes.
"Doctor, please, it's nothing—"
"Sshh, let me have a look."
And he did. His eyes seemed to bore into her for several seconds, and she wanted to flinch away, but he held her gaze inexorably, searchingly. Then his hands moved down, fingers pressing lightly at the base of her skull for a few moments.
He pulled his hands away and his eyes lowered. "I'm sorry, Rose."
His voice was deep with sadness, and she knew what he was going to say. She'd been too weak, and he was afraid for her, frightened that she would suffer irreparable harm, and it was time for her to leave, to return to her home where she'd be safe…
"I should've realized it sooner," he was saying.
She forced herself to attend to his words, struggling to formulate a response, something that would convince him to let her stay.
"…forgot what travelling between universes does to humans. My people were literally born for it, genetically predisposed to the task, but even so, we were trained carefully so that we wouldn't suffer any damage in the process. But you lot—" He paused, and she could see that he was trying to choose his words carefully. He had yet to drop the bomb.
"What happens when you make coffee?" he asked rather abruptly.
She blinked in surprise. "What?"
"Coffee, Rose. It starts out as clear water, just some H2O and nothing else. But when it's done, it's coffee—looks different, smells different, tastes different. It's gone through the filter, picking up all those bits of the oil from the beans, which attach to the water molecules in the process then end up all brown and aromatic and bitter if you aren't careful—"
"I don't understand," Rose interjected. She was anxious for him to make his point and be done with it.
"Well, if you wanted to, you could take the coffee and turn it back into water. You'd just need the right equipment, wouldn't be difficult at all, because even though it's changed, the water's still there."
"Doctor, I don't get what coffee has to do with any of this."
"You don't? Sorry, I didn't make my point very well, did I? You see, the water is like you in your universe, and the coffee is like you in the parallel universe. You had to slip through the filter to get to that other place, and when you did you picked up little bits of space and time that allowed you to fit into that universe, to blend it with it just like a nice cup of coffee is water blended with the coffee beans. But now that you're back in your own universe, it's a little like taking a cup of coffee and using it like water. They aren't completely interchangeable. The water's still in there, but it takes a bit of work to get it back to its natural state."
"So you're sayin' I'm coffee now?"
"Yep."
"Regular or decaf?"
He smiled at that, and Rose began to feel a little of her anxiety slip away.
He continued, "Moving from one universe to the other, then back again, disrupted your body's energy at the cellular level. Your neurons are firing just a bit wrong, the way they would have in the other universe, the way they needed to work there."
"That's why I can't sleep and my head hurts?"
He brushed his fingers across her brow. "Yes. And it's my fault. I should've been aware of it, but it's been such a long time since I did that with a human…"
"How do I get back to normal?"
"Well, there are a couple of options, but the simplest and most enjoyable one is to spend some time in an intermediate space where your energy will naturally stabilize enough so that when you return to this universe your body will readjust on its own."
"What do you mean, an intermediate space?"
"Oh, that's sort of half-way between one universe and another."
"But won't that damage the TARDIS? I mean, it's just now getting' back to normal."
He smiled at her concern for the ship. "Once she's fully recharged, she won't be harmed by the journey. It's only a half-step, not a whole one."
"So what's this intermediate space like? A combination of two universes?"
"Exactly! And you'll love it, I know you will."
She smiled in earnest, relief filling her from head to toe. "So just, what, twelve hours or so?"
He nodded. "In the meantime, let's see what I can do about your headache."
"'S okay. I can manage until we get there."
"But you don't have to."
He took her hand in his, rotating the palm upward. He traced a line from her wrist to the base of her thumb with his index finger then lifted his other hand to her forehead. Simultaneously his finger and his palm pressed over her hand and brow, and she felt a little surge of warmth at the contact sites.
She blinked, eyelids heavy for an instant, and suddenly she realized that her head had slumped forward to rest against his chest. She could hear the beating of his hearts. When she lifted her head, he smiled down at her.
"Better?" he asked simply.
Indeed, the ache was gone, and she wasn't quite as tired. Funny, she had an odd feeling of time passing, of missing something…
She nodded in response to his query, then her eyes wandered to the row of clocks. She squinted for a moment. "How long's it been?" she asked suddenly.
"A couple of hours."
"I fell asleep?"
His expression was a peculiar mix of smugness and guilt. "You were tired, Rose—still are, but you'll be able to rest once we've landed."
"Did you sit here with me the whole time?"
"Where else would I go?"
"Thank you."
"Any time."
Rose stood and stretched. Suddenly she realized that she was hungry. She hadn't felt any real desire to eat in several days, and the gnawing at her stomach was almost startling.
"So," she said, "s'pose the planet with all the chocolate's out now."
"Yep. But I know of some other nice places that'll just fit the bill."
"Will the food be any good?"
"You feeling hungry?"
"Starved."
The Doctor grinned. "Glad to hear it." Standing, he said, "I have a couple of adjustments to make here, but we should be ready to land in a few hours."
He bent over the console, and Rose settled back in the seat, content to watch him tinker until they could travel once again.
To be concluded in Chapter 3... Thanks for reading!
