A/N: A note to myself: I'm an absolutley victim when it comes to writing-plans. But hey! Christmas is knocking on everyone's door, so it's not a bad time for another update, now is it? I hope I can amuse you, because that's what I want!
Maybe you checked out my profile: the German Version of this story is already done, now I'm all yours until Christmas Day. I hope it's possible to translate the other four chapters in that time, for I do it all by myself.

So, shall we go on then?
GERONIMO!

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When I was a man I thought it ended
Well I knew loves perfect ache
But my peace has always depended
On all the ashes in my way.
[HOZIER · ARSONIST'S LULLABYE]

Her eyebrow twitched expectantly; Rose founded her balance again and followed the requested nodding of the Doctor to the double doors of the TARDIS, after the time-machine's engines stopped at last. He was grinning from cheek to cheek with a joy, which hardly showed how truly hurt he had been just moments ago. Oh, the Gallifreyan was good at things like that! Displacement, stiring up trouble, raging and destruction wherever he set foot on foreign ground: so it was unnecessary to make the TimeLord a metaphor, for he was indeed a multi-faceted man, always living in his own hustle and bustle, making decisions in no time and this not seldom without a plan.
Actually Rose loved this about him. It made him and his life thrilling – and was probably the lodestone which attracted Rose like the moth to fire. Every day discovering something new, never stop, always on the run. There were times when the girl would have laughed out loud when somebody would've told her that she was even going to consider to live a life like this, traveling through Time and Space, visiting foreign planets and stars, where there was nothing more for her than meeting friends and hanging around in putted on carelessness: without graduation. Withouth a Job. Without a future. But that was just Powell Estate – living and dying; everybody got the same unimportant fate and the same uneventful life.
Roses eyes met the Doctor's open and blue ones; he stood there, nearly pounting at her while giving an inviting, but impatient wink towards the doors. He didn't seem to understand her sudden hesitation, nor accepting it:
"What'ya waitin' for? Go on! Have a look."

She brought her lips between her teeths, countering his impatience with the most charming smile she could offer while turning to the double doors of the TARDIS with a fluttering bathrobe. But the first thing Rose faced on the other side of the time machine was blanc cold air, which made her suddenly staggering back the way she came from. Her shocked wheeze led the Doctor to her side, but more out of curiousity than real concern, imitating Roses intention of stepping outside onto the place they just landed on: "Oh", he retorted short at first, looking to his blonde companion with an amused half smile, whereas he pressed the door gently back into the padlock. "Sorry, that wasn't exactly what I thought it would be." The doctor scratched thoughtfully his jaw with a single finger, before he grapped Roses hand to draw her after him behind the control plates of the space ship: "To answer your question: yes, it's the right place." He shook his hand dismissively: "The coordinates must have been wrong, haven't been here for a while, me. Don't know, can't be far away – 100 metres, 150 metres at the most … everything's fine, we'll be there in no time and then –"
"Where are we?" Roses tone sounded irritated.
"The North Pole."
"The North Pole?"
"Why, of course."
The earth-girl knew she looked like a big fish suffocating in a net, for she couldn't shut her mouth at the Doctor's response.
"Don't ya know where Santa lives? Hawaii? Everybody knows it's the North Pole, Rose. That's where he has his toy-manufactory."
"Just fairytales, Doctor." The TimeLord couldn't help but grin: "No, it's not. Come on, put some warm clothes on and I will show you! You'll find something suitable in the wardrobe. Guess it's high season in the manufactor, it's Christmas Day."
"It's already Christmas?" Roses eyes grew for a second and while the Doctors grin turned into a soft smile, she forgot about the surprise of being unexpectedly on the coldest place on earth. "Oh yes, thought it would be some fun to meddle with Time … it's your special Christmas after all, isn't it? So why should ya wait any longer while you force me to eat your terrible baked cookies?" He saw her fist coming and took a safe step aside.

Rose felt a bit overhelmed. Ten minutes ago, the Doctor didn't even think about Christmas, let alone initiating something similar, now the Gallifreyan landed on the North Pole just to show her Santa Clause's factory. It was extremely inconsistent and likewise puzzling, but it was typical for her alien friend to banish his true feelings into a hole of his awareness, where nobody could look beyond his stony façade. Rose wasn't sure what she should think about that, while her hands found the way back into the pockets of her robe, walking through the loneley corridors of the TARDIS.
It was certainly a fine gesture from him, though. A difficult situation for the Doctor, giving in into something he knew he would not be happy about – simple remarkable. The blonde sighed and stroked some hair behind her ear, knowing for sure she would accept his offer and his sort of gift without any doubt or any further question.

The wardrobe had anything a girl could dream of. Rose was slightly surprised, whether the Gallifreyan had a thing for collecting clothes like this, or if he lived indeed as long and in so many ways that everything in there was his own from the very start. She persumed collecting, though. Because while traveling between Time and Space, to Earth, another Planets, a Satellite or a Moon, a thing or two would always find its way into his large TimeLord-Pockets by nothing more but a blink of an eye. He truly got this skill of a thief, a fast hand, defty fingers – so it was most obvious where the clothes from the TARDIS came from, or well – could have come from.
It was wasted input nonetheless, for Rose knew for sure that the Doctor didn't change his appearance that often, let alone accordingly to their trips. Rose couldn't help but smile, though, whereas her eyes were fixed upon a certainly accessory she noticed while looking around. Over there, in the corner of one of the smaller wardrobes, hung a hat. It was a big, beautiful hat made of brown leather, which would have looked adorable on someone like Indiana Jones for example. She fished after it, turned it between her hands and put it onto her head, where it slipped past her nose in an instant. Rose laughed. Oh she loved this sort of room, its coziness, those rags and things – a treasury for her liking.

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Rose was bulked up in cotton wool. She thought it necessary, because of the cold, to put on an amount of different things, crowned with a fluffy scarf, a long whooled coat, gloves and a cap. The blonde never ever was on a place like the North Pole before, so why underestimate the weather and risking to freeze to death? But it wasn't really comfortable walking back to the control-room, for it was warm under layers of polyester and cotton and the corners of her coat were far too long for her own good, anyway.
To her surprise the Doctor was reading. He sat on the pilot's chair in front of the control panel, a knee at his body while he balanced himself with the other food on the edge of the console, patiently entertained by his own thoughts – and therefore the perfect point for a well placed companion's attack: the old hat under her arm, Rose tackled the TimeLord from the side, using his irritation to her advance to put the hat with a firm grip on top of his head. The Doctor lost his balance, but managed to hold on Rose out of reflex as the book fell to the floor in the meanwhile: "Oi!"
Rose laughed, staggerd under the Gallifreyan's weight who supported himself on her shoulder, and did a half step to him, to move the hat in a better position under which the Doctor shot her a furtive look. She grinned, took her tounge between her teeth and surveyed the Doctor's new look like an artist her work. The earthling snapped her fingers: "You, Sir, you look quite fantastic." He didn't reply though, just wrinkled his forehead to look at the Blonde with a raised eyebrow, before he took the hat with mild curiosity from his top: "That's an ol' rag, that is." Rose shrugged: "lay around, found it – and it's freezy outside. Be happy I didn't brought you the ugly brown cap with the reindeers on it… -"
"But I love reindeers! That cap is great, did ya' ever wear something like that on a stormy day?" The Gallifreyan rubbed demonstratively his earlobe: "No cold lobes with a real cap." If it wasn't for Roses big brown eyes, he certainly would have thrown the hat away with so much as a second thought, so he gave up and sat it back on his head: "Satisfied, yea?" Rose nodded in agreement.
"Very well, then let's go!"

"Where are we going anyway?"
The Doctor closed his leather jacket, shoved the hat a bit over his forehead and stuffed his hands nonchalant into the pockets, while he was followed by his companion towards the double doors: "It's a surprise. Isn't that the reason for Christmas? Surprises an'stuff? Now come on." He towed Rose with his shoulder through the TARDIS's doors onto a wide and white stony winter-landscape. It snowed.
The blonde one didn't like snow much, for it was wet and cold, and most of the time you found it basically in your shoes and therefore got slobbery feet. Besides, a snowball had hit her straight in the face as a child, so she was some sort of biased and more a summer's worshiper – and even so she wanted to cram a hand of snow right into the Doctor's neck, she didn't mind to come out of this frozen desert as soon as possible, to see what the Doctor wanted to show her. Christmas was okay, of course, with the lights and the fluff, a cup of tea or booze in a warm room, mistletoes and Christmas Trees – the North Pole didn't stand a chance to that, though.
Some shallow breeze hustled over the scenery, obstructing their sight and the way they followed. The daylight was quite diffuse and the howling of the wind their own foreign companion. Roses arm found it's way around the Doctor's who headed for a direction, she couldn't make out between monotone white and desert. The walk took long enough to gave Rose a shiver once in a while; there were snowflakes in some strands of her hair, she didn't make to jam in her cap and her cheeks were already reddened by the wind. She pulled together not to whine.
"Here we are then!", the Doctor said after some time and looked down at Rose, meanwhile a clearly red nose on his own face, which made her inevitably smile. He turned around two times, got to the knees, searched the powdery ground for something even with the Screwdriver and rubbed his neck a bit confused, before he was interrupted in his search by Roses sudden rasp.

He was by her side in a meantime, following her gaze that lingered thunderstrucked on a shadow, which came suddenly across the distance to them with long, mighty strides.
The earthgirl screamed then, and searched for shelter behind the TimeLord's back in an instance; she looked over her shoulder to the TARDIS and calculated rather amateurish how fast they might get back to the phone box, before the wild animal would catch up with them (Where did it even came from?!). But the ice-bear was near and the ground quivered under its motions until it jumped. The bear's fur waved like a mane in the wind; it roared and stood up on its back-paws, gnashing the teeths and ready for a hungry strike. Any second now and it would be over; a fantastic Christmas? Thank you very much, space-boy.
Rose wheezed in fear, pressed her eyes together and prayed to all the gods as the Doctor's leather jacket moved with his counter-attack. He wasn't going to rip of the bears head with his bare hands, now was he? She counted down to three and held her breath – but the final kill and the feeling of razor-sharp claws in her body never came.

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Instead there was laughter cutting the solitude of the North Pole. Both arms around her body, Rose risked a brave blink over the TimeLord's shoulder towards the ice-bear, which sit on his paws, his own arms spreaded invitingly for a surreal, big and furred hug. And indeed: the Doctor didn't even hesitate to press the creatures body against his own what seemed to be a long and welcoming embrace as if the bear was nothing more or less than a stuffed little animal or an old friend. She wanted to stop him, wanted to scream at her companion and the obvious danger in his actions, but the hassle reached its summit as the creature began to liften its dark and controlled voice: "Doctor, my Doctor! I knew it!" The bear slapped the TimeTraveller with his big paw between the shoulder blades until he inevitably stumbled. But the Gallifreyan grinned in the wolfish way of his, warm and friendly.
"You changed a bit", the creature moved on. "Your ears are bigger than the last time I saw ya', but I recognized your hat, couldn't overlook this ol' rag of yours." It seemed proud with itself for a moment, until the light in its eyes vanished again: "Thought ya' dead, made us worry about ya'. Orga was practically furious, as ya' didn't come back."
Hands deep down in his pockets, the Doctor looked guardedly with cool blues eyes at the ground, where his foot drew a forlorn circle; he paused: "Needed to do something", he finally spoke. "There's been a war on my planet … and we lost, I couldn't come back, not yet … I'm sorry." The bear winked: "No problem, Doctor, no reproach. Though … well … we did some changes since then, needed to apportion our time-ressources. But the earth doesn't stay still, now does she? It's getting worse by every year, can tell'ya that." Suddenly, the animal grinned again and Roses noticed how lively eyes the bear had: "You wanna help then?" The Doctor pushed the hat a bit upon his forehead and looked back to Rose for the first time since the creature started to speak.

The girl jerked by the amount of unexpected attention, but the bear just smiled curiously – as far as one could tell that, though: "If Rose wants to help? Thought she might wanna get to know you." The ice-bear came closer, while every step he took stirred the snow beneath his feet. Rose tensed, stared the animal in its face and stopped breathing, while it took a deep sniff with its big nose right in front of her own.
"Rose, this is Nicki." The Doctor was by her side again, apparently pleased with himself all of a sudden. One could tell he enjoyed the blonde's reaction, her surprise, the unbelief and her fear – he liked it, when someone got to know something entirly new, and speaking polar-bears added this sort of repertoire in any case.
"Santa Clause is a bear?", was the first thing which came to her mind and so fast she has stuttered it, she stopped: "I mean … uh … Hello?"
"Hello", Nick whispered interested, drawing a circle around the earthling like an animal did with its pray. Meanwhile the TimeLord continued: "Don't get him wrong, Rose, everything's fine. His people come from Septima Borras, better known in the Universe of the TimeLords as the Northern Star oder the Northern Sky. Daleks killed most of them long time ago, before the great war on Gallifrey even began – their home has been destroyed. And before you wonder: they can switch their present, pretend to be a part of their surroundings, if it's essential for them."
Nick sat himself in front of Rose into the snow: "My name's Nickar, Missy. There're just a view of us remaining – a possible flight because of a certain TimeLord." He looked to the Doctor "We won't be still alive if it wasn't for him. Settled here, made us a new place to stay, a home – about 500 years ago after your calendar. We are no trouble-makers and our talents lay in craft and trading, that's why we got this factory. We started with some carpentry until we went on with toys. The whole Christmas-Story developed through the years though, because we loved the idea to celebrate our new home once in a while to say thank you. We are not more than tolerated refugees under the stormy eyes of your friend over there." Nick appeard thoughtful. "But I bet you thought me a big an' ol' man with beard and stuff, did ya' not? The Doctor loved to dress like that and me too, sometimes, truth be told."

Rose just stared quite dumbfounded, though Nicki laughed raw and nodded back to the direction he came from just minutes ago: "It's a bit cold outside, let's go to the factory. Orga's loosing her mind already, made some hot chocolate for ya'. Ya' like chocolate, I hope? Come on. This way." With that, Nickar turned on his paws to lead the way. Rose gazed up to the TimeLord, who grinned slightly and held up his arm for support. Could it get any crazier?

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THX FOR READING.