III

Dust

Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own Doctor Who...Damn.

Prompt: Dust.

A/N: Sorry this update has taken so long...history coursework and extended project own my soul...I antipate getting it back in time for my 18th birthday (two weeks is such a long time!). Any-who (oh, the wit!), on with the drabble! This one is officially the Alt!TenRose ship 'cause I messed up with a line...but if you want, just block out the very obvious 'I'm-the-part-human-clone' bit...I apologise profusely but I figure it's crack!fluff so it doesn't really make much difference...So, enjoy!

A/N: Reviews make me a very happy bunny indeed...feel free to make my day by submitting one...there may even be a very pretty Time Lord in it for you...

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It seemed like Torchwood was experiencing a slow day. It didn't deal well with slow days, probably a result of not seeing very many of them. Usually, there were aliens popping up left, right and centre, some hostile, some curious, some scavengers. It didn't matter, really, because everyone was too busy to pay much attention. But on slow days? Well, there was nothing much to do other than drink endless amounts of coffee, casually flick through the piles of paperwork waiting to be filled out, or pay some much needed attention to your cuticles. Rose Tyler was occupied with the latter.

She was so absorbed in her pathetic excuses for nail beds that she jumped when her mobile vibrated loudly on the desk next to her. She scrabbled for it and clicked the answer button, exhaling loudly when the vibration stopped.

"Tyler" she said curtly.

"Rose? Rose, is that you?" She relaxed the second she heard the Doctor's voice. At least there was no imminent alien threat bearing down on her office (although she checked the window for any approaching spaceships…just in case).

"You know it's me…you rang my mobile!" She giggled.

"Are you busy?"

"Doctor, if this is gonna another attempt at a 'what are you wearing?' call, we both know what happened last time…" A few weeks after she'd gone back to Torchwood, the Doctor had attempted to seduce her down the phone…but he'd called her office, she'd put him on speakerphone, he got confused about the concept of that particular type of call, and the entirety of the Torchwood Senior Staffwere treated to a very detailed description of his favourite tie.

"No nooo…although I think I've got the hang of those now…No, I'm, uh, I think I'm dying, Rose…"

"Stay where you are. I'll be two minutes." She snapped the phone shut and sprinted out of the building, hailing a taxi and screaming their address to the driver.

She careered through the door of their flat, screeching to a halt as she saw the Doctor splayed out on the sofa, wearing a dark blue-towelled dressing gown and an entire box of Kleenex. His hair was limp and looked like he'd just got out of bed and he looked completely and utterly sorry for himself.

"Doctor?"

"Hello, Rose…" His voice came out as a theatrical croak and she repressed the urge to smile.

"So…this is you dying, huh?"

"Yeah, it's awful, Rose! It feels like something is sitting on my chest and I can't breathe and my voice has gone! My voice! You know how much I love my voice!"

"Don't I just…" she muttered, giggling slightly before clearing her throat, preparing to make a diagnosis. "Weeeelll," she said, in a perfect imitation of him when he was being all wiser-than-thou, "I think we can safely say that you are suffering from Homo influenza, more commonly known as Man Flu. It's nothing to worry about, a natural occurrence for stupid apes like you." She grinned teasingly.

"Hey! I'll have you know that I'm part Time Lord, thank you very much, Miss Tyler!" Her giggles returned with a vengeance and he pouted at her, sniffing loudly as if to drive home the fact that he was ill and wanted her undivided attention.

She finally gave in. "Alright you big baby, have you got a fever?"

"Wouldn't know. Always feels roasting in this body," he muttered mutinously as she let the back of her hand rest lightly against his forehead, testing the temperature of his skin. She smiled to herself, realising it still came as a shock to her that whenever she touched him, he felt ever so slightly hotter than he had in his Time Lord form.

She brushed his damp hair away from his face in a gesture of such tenderness that his eyes widened slightly, surprised as with a jolt, he remembered her doing much the same thing when he had regenerated into this incarnation. She had been unsure of him then too.

"Well you don't feel feverish…what were you doing this morning?"

"Uh…cleaning, I think…" She shook her head, trying to come to terms with his confession. The image of the Doctor cleaning anything was an amusing one…although she did enjoy the nice long showers that he seemed to have a fetish for.

"Nope, sorry…you'll have to say that again 'cause I don't think I heard you properly…" She let her tongue poke out from between her teeth, showing him that she was teasing him.

He immediately launched into the defensive. "Weeeeellll, you left a list of stuff that needed to be done on the coffee table and I thought I'd help you out since you work so hard and I had to give up on the hoover 'cause the cable got a bit, uh, twisted…" He indicated the offending item sheepishly and Rose's eyes widened as she saw the mess of power cable that she'd have to unravel at some point, but she didn't have time to chastise him about it because he was already talking. "…and there was loads of other stuff on the list, like ironing, but after the business with the hoover I thought it was probably best if I stayed away from electrical appliances and dusting sounded nice and easy but that was when the strange all-over-body spasms, you know, like those twitches we developed on Muscrade 5?" She stifled another giggle as she remembered the Doctor hopping around on one leg for four hours while his head did an impression of a pigeon and his arms got the idea that someone was playing the Macarena at full blast. "…and then the loud noises started…"

"Hang on, slow down…'all-over-body spasms'?…Do you mean that you sneezed?"

"Oh. Yeah. That's what you humans call it, isn't it?"

"Oi! Less of the 'you humans' business, thanks. So, you sneezed?"

"Yup. But then I sort of…kept sneezing…and now I'm dying."

"Dying?" she repeated.

"Yes! This feels like a common cold…and Time Lords die from common colds!"

She paused, committing that particular biological fact to memory before she finally spoke, softer this time, less patronising, "But you're not…a…Time Lord anymore…"

His brow furrowed slightly, a light crease appearing across the bridge of his nose. "Oh. Yeah. Keep forgetting that…"

She placed her hand on his and kissed his hair before smiling brightly at him. "Besides, I don't think it's a cold. You've just inhaled some dust and reacted to it. You'll be fine soon."

"But you'll stay and…" he winked mischievously at her, "…nurse me back to health?" Her smile became much more suggestive.

"Oh yes…plenty of things I can do with a cold compress, yeah?"

"Weeeeellll, I can certainly think of a few…"