& Jealousy

It took a while for them to sufficiently disentangle themselves from each other, and by this time the Doctor truly was grinning. A million things ran through his mind at once; what he could say to her, what he wanted to say to her, and whether or not Martha had guessed at what was going on yet.

His brain was a confusion of swirling matter, most of which he could not distinguish into words and phrases. He managed to blurt out, "You've stopped dyeing your hair!"

Rose laughed and he felt his hearts beat a little faster. Dreaming about her laughter was one thing, but hearing it was something else. How he'd missed her laughter.

"Do you like it?" she responded, flicking it for good effect. It was a lot longer now, curled at the back but straightened at the front. She looked beautiful, and for the moment the hows and the whys could wait.

"It's brilliant," he responded, and she grinned, her tongue poking between her teeth cheekily. Oh, not too much had changed. He contented himself with staring into her deep brown eyes.

The moment was broken up when Martha cleared her throat loudly next to him. He looked over at her and twitched – he'd already forgotten that she was there. "Oh! Right. Martha, this is… Martha, this is Rose. Rose, this is Martha. I…" He trailed off, unsure of what to say.

Martha's expression was more than a little surprised. She'd listened to the Doctor tell Jack that Rose was stuck on a parallel universe, so why was she here, of all places?

Rose started tugging on the Doctor's arm, giving him a small smile. The Doctor happily let her lead him wherever she was going, and Martha was not going to miss out on this, she just wasn't. She followed in their wake, trailing a little behind them and seething with jealousy as Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand if it was the most natural thing in the world. But Martha remained silent, dragging her feet only a little. After all, this was Rose and the Doctor.

x

The Doctor settled himself into the sofa Rose had indicated, and felt Martha sit down beside him. He didn't resent the girl's presence – he was much too overjoyed for that – but had thought that she would have the intelligence to head back into the TARDIS and realise that this was quite personal for him. Obviously, she didn't – although, he told himself, that wasn't exactly fair. She was very clever. Just not in this type of situation, clearly.

Rose tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear as she sat down opposite him and gave him a big smile. "I missed you," she said. The Doctor found that saying words was actually quite difficult. Rose didn't seem to mind, luckily.

"How?" he whispered after a while.

Rose sighed. "That's an interesting story, actually." The Doctor nodded at her to go on. She sighed again, rubbing her eyes.

"When you left, I was offered a job at Torchwood again. I didn't think you would be coming back this time, and I knew it was right that I move on. I'd had my last moments with you, and that was fine. Now I needed a life of my own. We spent so long finding out about alien artefacts and going into the field. I enjoyed it because it reminded me of you, in a good way." She smiled across at him and resisted the urge to pat his knee. "But one day, my assistant and I – can you imagine, me with an assistant! – were chasing up a particularly dangerous alien artefact. I made the mistake of touching it."

Her expression darkened as she tucked the same piece of hair behind her ear again. It was quite short so it continued to fall over her face each time she did it. The Doctor found himself a little distracted by it.

"It put me into a coma, of sorts. It wasn't really a coma – it was more like stasis. I didn't breathe, didn't eat, didn't age. I lost ten years of my life, whilst everyone grew up around me, whilst they grew older."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said quietly.

"That's all right," Rose said, and she had cheered up somewhat now. "When I had recovered Dad told me…" She smiled again. "They'd found a gap between the worlds."

The Doctor shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. "Don't worry!" Rose said, with a laugh. "We know it was you who left it. I thought as much. It's not like you to leave and not be able to control whether or not you can come back."

"It wouldn't have damaged anything," the Doctor said, "it… it was safe. I just left it there in case I needed to come back – in case I felt like you wanted me to come back…"

Rose waved a hand to quiet him, and he fell silent. "We found a way to cross the void," she continued. "Me, Mum, Dad, Sophie…" She stopped and bit her lip. "We took some money, of course. We couldn't survive in Mum's old flat without money. Enough to keep us all comfortable for the rest of our lives. And we waited for you to come back."

The Doctor swallowed. "How long?"

"Six years."

The Doctor looked around. Rose lived in a nice sized house with several bedrooms. "Where's the rest of the family?" he asked. "Jackie… Pete…?"

"They're out," Rose said, with a nod. "They should be back soon." As she said this, the phone rang. She leapt to her feet and picked it up. "Hello? Hello, darling. Yes, of course. I'll see you soon. Bye."

She put the phone down and turned to face the Doctor. "You'd better go," she said. The Doctor looked like he was about to protest, so she said, "I'll meet you in the park in town tomorrow, okay? It's called Northgrounds. About eleven or twelve?"

The Doctor nodded and stood up, giving her a smile. "All right. I'll see you then."

They shared a hug before they left, and Martha trotted obediently after the Doctor as they walked back towards the TARDIS. "Well, that was suspicious," she said.

"What was?" the Doctor asked, walking on air and oblivious to pretty much everything else.

"Her getting rid of us that quickly," she continued. "It's almost as if she had something to hide, don't you think?" The Doctor didn't reply. "Doctor? Don't you think?"

"Leave it, Martha," the Doctor growled.

"But there has to be a reason why she just got rid of us! Something she doesn't want you to see, or it could be a trap, or–"

"Martha, I said drop it!"

"I'm just trying to help," she said sullenly.

"Well, you're not helping!"

"Fine!" Martha responded. "You can go and meet dear Rose in the park tomorrow and you can take me home right now."

"Fine." They stepped into the TARDIS and Martha shut the door whilst the Doctor keyed in the coordinates to take her home. Martha folded her arms and waited for the ship to land. There was no way in hell she was going to stay if the Doctor was going to snap at her for no reason.