Disclaimer: BBC owns the rights to everything recognisable in connection to Doctor Who. And seeing how it includes even the Police not owning the rights to their phone boxes anymore, what is the chance that I could actually have rights to anything DW related?

Summary: An impromptu trip inspired by Rose's idea leads to topics the Doctor never quite expected. Even though he probably should. Meant to take place sometime after The Idiot's Lantern, so events up to that episode might be mentioned in passing.

Over the Moon

Zigzagging to Conclusion

Finding Rose wasn't, on the whole, particularly difficult. Even with the TARDIS letting him know exactly what she thought of him upsetting their Rose, she still wasn't so far gone as to refuse the Time Lord bonded with her the information on what was going on inside her.

Soon enough, he walked into the galley to be met with the sight of his favourite human apparently attempting to stab the ice cream to death with a spoon. He approached cautiously, which had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the last time he had seen her become violent, she vaporised the entire Dalek fleet.

"Ice cream trouble?" he asked in a tone suggesting that such trouble was of the most commonly found kind.

As soon as she heard him speak, Rose swirled around, wielding her spoon like a weapon. What's worse, she got more puffy-eyed than she was before. This definitely wasn't good.

Seeing how he firmly believed that resolving any matter over drawn weapons, spoons or not, wasn't very productive, he strode to her, took the offending item from her hand, used the sonic screwdriver to soften the ice cream and scooped a good amount into a bowl. Then, adding a splash of raspberry syrup for good measure, he handed the bowl to Rose as a peace offering.

She took it, snatched her spoon from him and retreated to the table looking offended. Not letting that discourage him, he followed and took the seat beside her.

"Rose?"

"Mnpht," she responded with a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth, the spoon still there. He wondered if she would be offended if he asked the TARDIS to record that image of her. Still, it was time to try to move forward in resolving the upset Rose issue.

He dug in his pockets again, vaguely remembering where to find what he was looking for. After two minutes and a small pile of items placed on the table before him, he became aware of the doubtful look the girl was giving him. That was when his fingers finally closed on what he was looking for.

Rose looked as the Doctor's face suddenly lit with a triumphant expression as he fished out a small metal case. She was half-expecting it would join the rest of the items (and what was he doing with a lava lamp in his pocket anyway?), when he opened it and started looking though photos he had inside, finally selecting two and handing them to her.

Each photo was of a woman, neither of whom did she recognise – one with dark locks, smiling mysteriously straight at the camera, the other slightly younger, blonde, looking up mischievously from a book.

"They're pretty," she offered, not really knowing what to make of all this.

"She was pretty," he corrected immediately. "Same person, Rose, just two different regenerations."

"You mean she was..."

"A Time Lady, yes. And a good friend. Her name was Romanadvoratrelundar."

Rose tried mouthing that for a moment. "If that's what names were like for you, I no longer wonder why you're not using yours."

"Oh, it's much more complicated than that. And friends called her Romana anyway. That's not why I'm showing you her photos, though."

"Why then?"

"Before, you seemed to think that Time Ladies looked- well, I don't know what you thought exactly but you definitely thought that human standards of beauty wouldn't apply to them and vice versa. I thought I would let you know that wasn't the case before we went any further in this discussion."

She looked back to her ice cream, not lifting her gaze. "But you said 'for a human'. From the very start. If it didn't matter to you, why would you say that?"

"You mean, why would I add that, being practically a stranger to you, centuries older and basically your only way of returning home? I don't know, tell me Rose, why might have I thought it wouldn't be a good idea to start complimenting the looks of a girl who only just trusted me, knew next to nothing about me and depended on me at that moment?"

She blinked. Took another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth and blinked again.

"So you were trying not to let me get the wrong idea?" He almost confirmed that before she continued. "That you liked me?"

"Oh, Rose, of course I like you. That has absolutely nothing to do with it."

"All right, maybe not in the like like sense. But you know what I meant." She focused on her ice cream for a moment. "Only I should have known better than think you could actually love a stupid human like me."

"How many times do I have to tell you? You are not stupid. You, Rose Tyler, are brilliant."

"For a human. Human with no A levels."

"Not just for a human. And what do A levels have to do with anything? If you want to have them so much, we can have you sit them during one of our stops in London. I can even tutor you if you like, would be a good idea to make sure your school knowledge isn't stuck in twenty first century. But only people like that idiot Adam need a paper to tell them they are smart."

She snorted with the spoon in her mouth and shot him a betrayed look as she coughed a few times, apparently being attacked by the ice cream.

"I didn't really like him all that much, you know," she confessed.

"Could have fooled me. With you inviting him to travel with us and all..."

"If you must know, he made me feel so worthless, having that high IQ and all the diplomas. There I was, surrounded by people hand-picked for their genius, without even finishing school. You wouldn't believe how intimidated I felt."

"Intimidated? Rose, he couldn't tell a hair dryer apart from a weapon!"

"Really?" she looked at him curiously. "Anyway, I felt a little better when he started telling me how there is life on other planets and all. It wasn't much, but knowing something he didn't helped a bit. But still, with him informing me of everything, I felt so inferior and I thought how I never felt like that with you, despite you being loads smarter than him. So when everything was over and he came down to warn us, I thought that maybe if he came with us and spent some time around you, he would stop acting as if he was the smartest bloke around and actually start being normal."

"You wanted him to travel with us so I could show him up?" the Doctor asked bewildered.

"I don't think I saw it like that, then. If anything, I thought he might be good company to have around once he got over himself. If I had any idea what he would try to do, I would have never suggested that, I swear."

"And that's what makes you so wonderful, Rose. It would never even occur to you that someone could try to take advantage of travelling with me to line their own pockets."

"Still, sorry about that. I vouched for him, kind of."

"It's me who should have known better. It's just that I have this little problem with refusing you."

"You what?"

"Oh, don't tell me you haven't noticed. Bringing Adam with us, double-layered crossing your own timeline, waking too soon after regeneration, bets that annoy heads of state, taking Mickey in-"

"What?" she cut in suddenly. "Since when have I had anything to do with that?"

"Well, it was pretty obvious, Rose. I offered to let him come earlier, you know, after the whole Slitheen trouble and he said no. He never said anything about changing his mind when he met with us. And then, you are suddenly gossiping with Sarah Jane and whispering with Mickey in that chippy and the next thing I know Sarah Jane basically hands her spot over to him and he says yes."

She was looking at him strangely. "You thought that I arranged it?"

"Maybe not exactly the way it went but it's generally not hard to figure out. Still, you wanted him, so I brought him with us. Even tried to give the two of you some space while at it."

"That was why you acted like that on that spaceship? I thought you- Never mind."

"What else could you think? Honestly."

Rose opened her mouth, then closed it without voicing anything and focused back on her ice cream. Silence stretched between them and the Doctor could only hope she'd stop ignoring him once she finished eating.

After a moment she spoke again, not looking at him.

"None of it matters, does it? You said all those nice things but they don't matter, do they?"

"Of course they matter. Why wouldn't they matter?"

"You never said anything. You changed the topic and said all that stuff but..."

"Hold on, Rose. What didn't I say?"

She looked at him and her look suggested that unless he did something very quickly, he would need to deal with even-more-puffy-eyed-Rose. That wouldn't be good. Even-more-puffy-eyed-Rose, that is. Not wanting to face that eventuality, he did a quick assessment of their whole interaction. In the process of concluding that pink-and-yellow human girls must be among the most confusing creatures in existence, he realised there was one thing that still needed to be addressed.

"You never answered me, you know," he told her in what he hoped was a casual manner. She blinked at him, which, as far as he was concerned, wasn't a particularly elaborate reply. "When I asked if you meant me, you never said anything."

"It doesn't matter, does it? I'm just a stupid human and you don't see me like that, so what's the point?"

"Oh, Rose," he pulled her into a hug just as she started sniffing again. Then he took a moment to think of how to actually respond to what she implied. "The way I see you... You are brilliant. And wonderful. Brilliantly wonderful. Wonderfully brilliant, even. And amazing. Yes, definitely amazing."

At that point the Doctor risked a glance at her. There was something of a hopeful look in her eyes but it was disappearing fast, giving room to hurt. Why would Rose have a hurt look about her? Rose was supposed to be happy. Always. Because she was Rose and the universe was a decidedly better place with a happy Rose in it.

"Still, you're not saying it, are you?" she looked down for a second before suddenly looking up with strange determination on her face. "I- I do love you, you know," she whispered in a volume that would be inaudible for about sixty percent of sentient life forms. Well, forty five if you counted only those able to hear in the first place. Still. "But you don't, do you?"

He looked at her. Opened his mouth. Closed it. Pulled her a little closer, just in case she was considering taking off after the revelation again. Noticed how her hair smelled a bit stronger of strawberries when she moved her head. And it mixed with the raspberry scent from the syrup. Took an unnecessary breath analysing the smell, which was when he realised he was stalling.

"Rose-" he managed and stopped, unsure what he was supposed to say. "You could do so much better than me," he added, but that was apparently a wrong thing to mention, as she sniffed again. He was quite certain that, in theory, his earlier assurances were supposed to improve her mood somewhat. Definitely not cause that hopeless look in her eyes.

He looked down.

"I forgot," he confessed quietly.

"Forgot?" she asked, sounding all confused for some reason. "Forgot what, Doctor?"

"How to do it. It's been so long and with everything that happened since..."

"How could you forget?"

She stared at him as if he grew another head. Well, if you squinted, you could probably say that he did, in a sense, when he regenerated, but he doubted her reaction would be this delayed.

"Rose..."

"How can you not remember? I mean, you know what you feel, yeah, so if you felt it, you would know what it was," she argued before getting the upset look again. "You must have simply not felt it yet. But I'm sure you will, someday, just not for a silly human hoping for something-"

"No," he stated firmly, interrupting her, because he simply couldn't look at her doing that to herself. "It doesn't work like that, Rose."

She blinked at him. Well, it was something, he guessed.

"Feeling that for someone, it's complex, you know. It's all those small things you put together that amount to you realising that you..."

"Love someone?" she guessed when he found himself having trouble voicing it. He could talk, could always talk, especially in this regeneration, but give him temporal physics and quantum mechanics over feelings any day.

"Yes, that. Oh, I know there were those things that counted in the process. But how to put them together? The whole thing just got lost somewhere. I suppose I never really expected to have much use of it, anyway."

"You didn't expect to ever love anyone again?" the fact that her expression shifted from upset to horrified probably wasn't an improvement.

"I never expected to get close to anyone ever again. Of course, then I needed to go and save that human girl in the shop basement who had other ideas."

She beamed at him. Now that definitely was an improvement.

"Oh, you did, did you?"

"Yes, persistent creature, she was. Even without being there. She told me no, you see. And I went away, tried to go back to being alone and couldn't get her out of my mind. Had no choice but to eventually go back and ask her again."

She kept smiling, but looked thoughtful. "I did wonder. You aren't usually one to change your mind so fast. And you left and returned in about half a minute."

"Half a decade," he corrected, seeing her mouth falling open. "But I had to land close to where and when I left, in order to find you, didn't I?"

"You went away for a couple of years before you came back for me?" she repeated disbelievingly.

"What's a year or two to a Time Lord?" he asked rhetorically. "I was respecting your decision. You seemed like someone who knew what they wanted. I tried to get busy and forget about you, I really did. Uncovered an alien conspiracy that wanted to kill off all the Kennedy children just because they thought that their father was a traitor they were looking for..."

"Really?" she frowned, remembering something. "There was a picture of you in the crowd when JFK was shot."

"Long story. What I'm trying to say is, you, Rose Tyler, proved to be completely unforgettable. Had to go back for you because I was going crazy without you."

"But you knew me for just what, two days?"

"Two days is more than enough. Trust me."

She took the spoon and started drawing shapes in the now empty bowl.

"Unforgettable, huh?" she finally voiced.

"Oh, definitely. Unforgettable, that's you, Rose. And Brilliant. Can't forget brilliant. Brilliant and unforgettable." She blushed. It suited her, he decided. "And we should probably steer clear of the Trojan War. Can't have them deciding not to bother with Helen, can we? Wouldn't want to be the one fixing that paradox."

She blushed harder.

"You mean that?" she finally asked.

"Of course I mean that. When was the last time I said something I didn't mean?"

"You said Mum's cake tasted nice."

"Aside from that."

She smirked. "Picky, aren't you?"

They grinned at each other before the Doctor grew more serious again.

"I did mean everything I said, Rose. I think the world of you. And I can't stand being without you. I don't want to be without you and I don't even want to think about needing to, someday. Not to mention, I would do anything for you. But that's all I can offer. I wish I still knew how to love someone – you – but I'm not sure that part of me still exists."

"I think it does," she spoke after a moment. "Maybe it's buried somewhere deep but it doesn't seem like something that can simply get lost. We'll just have to figure out how to find it, yeah?"

"I'm not sure it's possible."

"Well, with that attitude you won't get far, that's for sure. All we need to do is keep trying," she told him.

And then she snogged him.

Silently, he had to admit to himself that he definitely could live with her approach to the matter. Though the fact that she broke off after a while wasn't very nice. Why couldn't humans have a respiratory bypass? Speaking of, he'd need to take a good look at human genome. Now that he was reminded of how impossible to stand the lack of Rose was, it would be sensible to make sure she was around for as long as possible. Maybe alteration in the biological current on cellular level, tweaking the telomeres- After taking a deep breath Rose resumed the snogging and he resolved to think about everything else later.

A while later, a much happier Rose was rinsing her ice cream bowl when he realised they had forgotten something.

"Rose? Do you want to watch the rest of the Moon landing?"

The End