Author's Note: I don't know what this chapter says about me. Maybe you can let me know. It's probably a good things I don't get onto zeppelins very often. Second chapter of the story and we're already into the 'M' bits.


Part II: Part Human

"Wednesday," said Rose at breakfast.

"What?" said the Doctor.

"It's a Wednesday. Sorry. I mean I only just found out. I lost track of time, travelling about."

"Do you have to go to work then?" They were alone in the breakfast room. The house had a room just for breakfast.

"Yes, but..." Rose bit into a piece of toast, and thought about it. "I've not taken a day off Torchwood since... well, ever."

The Doctor looked out of the window, at the blue cloudless sky. "Seems all right, today. The world, I mean. All's right in the world. So Rose Tyler can have a day off."

"I'm already late anyway. Can you believe my father left for work today without me?"

"I can. You were dead to the world earlier this morning." It was true. She had looked exhausted.

"We can go get you your reading glasses. And clothes. Nice threads, by the way." The Doctor was wearing clothing borrowed from Pete. The shirt was too wide, the pants too loose, and too short. The Doctor's modesty was literally hanging on a belt.

"Not one word," warned the Doctor. "I heard enough about this get-up from your mother this morning. And if I hear that new nickname she got for me once again..."

Rose lit up. "Oh? What is it?"

"I'm not repeating it to you!"

"Suit yourself." She sipped her coffee. "Just a matter of time before I find out, anyway."

"Speaking of suiting myself..." said the Doctor pointedly.

"Oh, yes," she smiled at him. "There's a tailor my father uses. Be a good place to take you. Do you know if he took the zep or the car today?"

"Pete? The car I think."

"Yes!" Rose exalted in the news.

The sudden realization that Rose was going to drive a zeppelin was astonishing and a little scary, the Doctor had to admit.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked the Doctor, fighting panic. "Couldn't you ask Torchwood to, you know, teleport us again?"

"Teleport's for emergencies," Rose said, like he was daft.

"But yesterday..."

"My mother is always an emergency."

"Ah." That made sense now.

"I'll teach you," said Rose, talking about the zeppelin.

This was why he'd always been travelling... to discover new things, meet new people and all that. Learning how to drive a zeppelin from Rose Tyler was one of those things he'd never have expected to experience, not in a thousand years.

"Ah... okay."

And that was the first first before noon.


He really shouldn't have been been shocked, but Rose was a pretty good pilot, and a fair teacher as well. But of course the Doctor's brilliance was probably what led him to pick up the zeppelin flying skills so quickly, if he was allowed to say so himself. Four and a half hours later, he was sitting at the zeppelin controls, had new glasses in his pocket and was in a suit that was loaned from the tailor's until they had his new ensembles ready. While the loaned jacket was a little too wide, he did feel a little better and back to normal. All he needed was a sonic screwdriver and a TARDIS and another heart to be back to his old self...

"You taking a detour?" Rose asked as she stood behind him, watching as he sat at the airship's console.

"You're not in a rush to head home, are you?" he asked. "I only just got the knack of this..."

"I can't say I really had anything planned for today," said Rose. "Didn't even plan to be back in this universe, mind you..." Her voice trailed off. The Doctor looked back at her; she was gazing out the window, over the horizon. It didn't take much for him to guess she was thinking about the other universe. The Doctor reached for her hand, and as he touched it, she blinked and smiled at him.

"Sit with me," invited the Doctor. There was an empty seat next to his. She took it, and busied herself looking at the fuel, altitude and speed displays. She was the perfect picture of serious business, back in her leather jacket and a simple tunic beneath it, over practical office slacks. Her hair was like a waterfall of polished bronze and gold. He loved the colour.

"Where do you want to go?" she asked, not looking at him. "Unfortunately, in this airship, all possible destinations are earthbound and limited to now..."

"Oh, it doesn't matter," said the Doctor, meaning what he said. "It's the company that really counts."

As she looked at him, he smiled his best smile. She returned it, and it was a sight for sore eyes. "But..." she said uncertainly.

"Rose. This is a whole new universe for me. I can only guess at its history, and at its futures, and what's out there to explore. There's so much for me to learn about it, just here and now."

She did not look like she believed him.

"Really, Rose."

"Okay."

He brought his attention back to the flying of the airship. Luckily the sky was relatively empty and didn't required white-knuckled, 100-percent attention at the helm. Beneath them, the landscape of London lazily turned along with the Earth.

"Is there any where you'd like to go?" he asked Rose.

Her answer was immediate. "Yes."

"Let's go there."

He removed his hands from the controls, making space for Rose so she could take over. She leaned against him as she reached for the keyboard and brought up a map display on the console screen.

"There." Rose pointed at the screen, at a spot on the north-west coast of Scotland. She hit more keys and buttons on the console, which beeped at her. Then she got up out of the chair and stretched. "Done!" she declared with a smirk.

"What?" said the Doctor. "Who's flying this thing?"

"Mr. Autopilot, Genius," said Rose with a wink at him.

The Doctor sputtered. "But you didn't... Why, you're cheating!"

The minx laughed at him, and jumped back as he jumped out of his chair. But she didn't go far, and it was easy capturing her in his arms and burying his face into her hair as her body continued to shake with mirth.

"I missed this. Travelling with you," confessed the Doctor softly as Rose became still and the two gazed outside the airship windows at the landscape below them. Above the ground, several airships floated in the distance.

"I did too," said Rose. "And I always had a lot of time up here alone by myself."

He could picture her as she said it. Standing here, looking outside, gazing below in silence with only the whir of the airship's engines as accompaniment. The mental image reminded him of himself, the times he had been alone in the TARDIS, after he'd lost her. His arms tightened around her.

She turned from the windows and looked up at him. He didn't know if she'd been thinking the same about him, being alone. Maybe she had been, because their minds seemed joined and as one as they kissed, almost desperately. She tasted faintly of coffee and strawberries. As her soft tongue explored his mouth, the Doctor nearly forgot to breathe, and remembering, he gasped for breath at the same time she did. Their synchronicity astonished him... encouraged, he met her soft lips with his again, marvelled at them, and lost himself in the feel of her mouth. He learned how to breathe while still kissing her, but oxygen seemed to be getting shorter and shorter in supply for the both of them, and both broke apart to draw deep gasping breaths after a while.

He felt Rose resting her head against his shoulder, felt her hot breath gentle on his neck, and even that sensation, like the kiss, were doing things to this new body that made him feel strong and weak at the same time.

"Rose," he said when he could speak. "You have to teach me how to do this. Teach me how to be human."

She stirred against him. "I thought you said you'd been human before. During your time with Martha. That you remember what that was like..."

The Doctor shook his head. "But not like this. Not for this..." To communicate his point, he kissed her slowly on her cheek, near her mouth.

She looked at him with a half-smile, and the Doctor watched as amusement and excitement danced in her eyes. "You always were human enough for me already, you know," she said. She turned thoughtful for a moment, and placed a hand on his chest, feeling the heartbeat beneath it. "Though, this..."

"One heart," said the Doctor, as a prompt, when Rose did not finish her sentence.

"Yes," said Rose. "One heart. And any human male will tell ya, this one heart can only send so much blood around the body at a time." A wicked smile crossed her face. "Now while that is enough, there may be times when less blood is available to keep the brain at optimum, so to speak..."

Deliberately, Rose let the hand over his heart slip slowly down to his waist, and the Doctor's knees nearly buckled.

"You're talking about arousal making human males stupid," said the Doctor.

"So to speak."

"I'm still a time lord as well," said the Doctor, a little defensively.

Rose grinned. "We don't know how much of your blood circulation is still time lord, Doctor."

That was true. And the Doctor worried even as the two of them were just standing in each other's arms, talking. Rose's words and voice were doing things to him that were completely new. Of course this was Rose, but it was also a Rose who had grown older while they were apart, older, more experienced and confident. He was discovering things about her as well. Like what her teasing was capable of stirring up in him...

"How long will it take to reach where we're going?" He captured her hand in his, the one near his waist, and placed it back over his chest.

"Hours," said Rose.

"Ah."

"Your heart rate's elevated, Doctor."

"It is." He looked into her eyes, and saw her looking back in his. Beneath her teasing bravado, he could see longing tinged with a little bit of shyness... uncertainty around him that came from her trying to discover who he was as well. Discovery... wasn't that one of the things that drove them? Even as the zeppelin flew over an England that was familiar and new to him at the same time, in his arms was a Rose who was also familiar and new to him.

The Doctor did not know what Rose was reading in his eyes. He only hoped she could see his need for her, at the same time he felt lost in it. For this was completely new territory to him. Teach me how to do this. Surely she would be able to hear that thought from him...

Rose stepped backward, out of his embrace. She took his hand, and walked them over to a part of the airship cabin where deep, plush banquettes lined the walls just beneath the windows. She sat down, and he sat next to her.

"What are we going to do for the next few hours?" she asked him. Her eyes never left his. She was measuring. Testing the water.

The Doctor had an answer ready. "You could run tests on my blood circulation." He pulled her closer, and wished the seats they had here were larger...

"Between us, I thought you were the Doctor." She kissed him tenderly on his neck.

He pressed her against the seat so he could capture her mouth with his own. "For this I need assistance," he said breathlessly after they shared a deep kiss. "And then I could run tests on you as well..."

"What kinds of tests?"

"Oh... reflexes, sensitivity, adaptability, flexibility..." The Doctor punctuated his words with another kiss. Rose moaned softly as his tongue dove into the depths of her mouth and flicked and wrestled against hers. Her mouth was warm and pliant, her body equally soft and welcoming. He kept waiting for Rose to push him away, but she never did. When he came away for breath, he was stunned to see the desire and command in her eyes. Don't stop now. His pulse raced as he realized where this was heading. Her eyes allowed no misunderstanding. Slowly, she ran her hands over his chest, slipping them under his jacket, then slipping them off. He helped, and then he was pulling hers off her shoulders. Before long she was pulling his tie away and undoing his shirt buttons, kissing him as she did so, and he groaned with need and anticipation and some disbelief. Rose Tyler was seducing him, and he was only too happy to go along for the ride.

"I think we can confirm that your tongue has been working splendidly," said Rose. "And ten points for the pillow talk."

"That's out of ten, right?" asked the Doctor. But she pulling his shirt open and running her hands over his skin, tasting him with her tongue. She licked and nibbled him from his jaw to his ear and as she bit gently on his ear lobe, a jolt of electricity seemed to run right through him. She steadied him with a firm but gentle hand around the back of his neck and one arm around his waist. It was just as well, because the Doctor felt like he was turning to mush in her hands. She could have bent and folded and molded him any way she wanted.

"Is this all right?" she whispered in his ear. "Do you want this?"

Yes. Yes. He could barely speak past the desire for her choking him. "Yes, if you do."

"Sit back," she said, "Just let me do this now."

He did not have an answer for that... his mind a complete blank that was proving the hypothesis about human males. All he knew was want and sensation as Rose's nails and fingers alternately explored, scratched and kneaded his skin, and her tongue painted trails down his chest that cooled in the air of the cabin as she travelled down his body. He was literally on the edge of his seat, and hoped Rose would not notice the shuddering in his legs as she slowly undid the buckle on his belt and pulled it from around his waist with a soft clink and a swish. She dropped it on the carpeted floor on the cabin, and concentrated on the fly of his trousers next. His arousal was straining against the fabric, ultra-sensitive as she slowly unbuttoned and unzipped him and carefully pulled down the waistband of his pants and boxer briefs. She freed him from the fabric.. and the Doctor closed his eyes as she leaned down and lightly touched his cock with her tongue. It definitely felt like all the blood and sensation in this human body had gone there.

"Human enough," said Rose softly, and he could hear the smile in her voice. And then he groaned from deep within him as she slipped down to the floor and took him into her warm mouth. She couldn't take it all, but what she could, and was doing, was nearly driving him mad as she ran her tongue up and down his length. Occasionally she brought him close to the edge by applying her teeth oh so lightly and applying suction pressure to the head of his cock. "Rose... Rose," he could only call her name weakly as he rested his hands on her shoulders.

"Mmm?" She withdrew from him for a moment. "I'm doing tests right now," she informed him, with a hint of irritation.

A laugh burst out of the Doctor as he opened his eyes and looked lovingly at Rose. "You're wearing too much," he said, cupping her cheek with his hand.

"Is that a problem?" she said. She rose from the floor, and the Doctor felt his heart pounding even harder as she spread her legs and straddled him carefully so that his member stood erect between them.

"It is," said the Doctor, as he lifted her tunic off of her body. She helped him remove it, smiled shyly as he touched the soft skin of her breast, just above where the bra hid her flesh from his sight. More bravely he cupped her curves, slipping his fingers under the delicate fabric of her lingerie, marvelling at her skin softer than silk. She shrugged the straps of her bra off of her shoulders so he could further explore, and gasped as he pinched and rolled her nipples with his fingers. He stopped, then tenderly placed the palm of one hand against her chest. He could feel her heart beating beneath his hand.

"One heart," he said, with wonder. "I'm like you now."

He felt the tempo of her heartbeat increase, and for a moment, he thought he saw her eyes shining with tears before she blinked and bit her lip. Before he could do anything else, she was off of his lap and removing her shoes, slacks and knickers. If he wasn't hard enough before, he was definitely was now, and throbbing with need. As soon as Rose was within reach he pulled her hips to him. Her eyes were no longer the eyes of the girl he once knew—this was a woman who needed him as much as he needed her, a woman whose thighs were now straddling him again, a woman who was now lowering her wet, molten core down onto his cock, enveloping him in tight, silken heat. He heard a sound he didn't recognize, and realized after a moment it was him, groaning at the sensation of being inside her. He closed his eyes, his senses feeling overloaded...felt his head tipping back, his legs turning to water. Every cell in his body was alive, fired up with sensation... he groaned and kept on groaning as Rose took more of him into her, lowering herself until he was inside her to the hilt. She rested her delicious weight on him, and placed one hand over his heart.

"Still with me?"

He moaned in response, opened his eyes and saw her smile.

"I think I like being human," he said, breathing heavily.

"I like it too," she said. She leaned close enough so he could feel her breasts against his bare chest, close enough to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss his temple softly. "And I love you," she whispered.

"And I... agh... oh, Rose..." He sank his head against her shoulder as his world became nothing but sensation. Her tight sheath hugged his length like a velvet glove, and as she rode him, rode this new body of his, the new nerves in his skin were going off like sparks, overwhelming his mind. It was all he could do to cling on to her as she moved upon him urgently. Beneath his hands, he felt her body tensing, like a spring winding tighter and tighter. Every deep drive of him into her core, she gasped. He could not hold on much longer when she started increasing the tempo. "Rose... Rose..." He was incapable of any more coherence than that, didn't know if she heard him either, because the next thing he knew, she was crying out like a small animal. She tightened around him...and his control slipped as his cock drove one last time into that place of bliss. Supernovae were bursting behind his eyes, in his heart and at the core of him... he sobbed as the little vibrations through her body could be felt in his as well, sobbed as hot seed spilled from him, each spurt giving him an additional burst of both pleasure and pain.

He didn't know how humans dealt with this...mental functions were overwhelmed completely during this. It was both terrifying...and liberating. To be freed, even if just a moment, of all thoughts, all past hurts, all memories. He hugged Rose to him tightly. She squirmed a little.

"Need to breathe," she gasped.

"Oh, sorry," he said.

But it was hard not to hug her. He fairly tapped his foot in impatience until she got her breath back and could be hugged without making a complaint.

"Liked that, did you?" asked Rose wryly from inside his embrace.

The Doctor grinned and felt this was the happiest moment since he'd been here.

"I'm so glad Pete took the car," he said.


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