Chapter 4 – Very, Very Amused

"Oh my god – they're werewolves!" laughs Rose, as they make their way into the TARDIS.

"Ahooooooooh!" howls the Doctor.

They laugh and laugh and he sets the coordinates for their brilliant ship to float in the vortex. It's been a long couple of days, chasing around after a werewolf, scary monks and of course, Queen Victoria.

"I can't believe I've been banished from my own country, in the century before I was even born! This is so fantastic, first I become a Dame, then I get exiled! Just wait 'til I tell Mum. She's gonna - "

"Slap me, most probably, like she always does. Really don't want that, Rose - it hurts! Please don't tell her."

"That was only once, and anyway, you were a different man back then."

"Which is relevant because...?"

"Because now she fancies you." She winks at him. He looks horrified. Then his expression turns a little smug.

"Actually...she fancied me before, too, even with the big ears..." Ha, that'll show her, he thinks.

"You what now?" Now Rose looks horrified.

"She, er, propositioned me the first time we met – she was in her dressing gown, and she was all like 'There's a strange man in my bedroom, anything could happen...'" he affects a particularly bad impression of Jackie's voice, "...and I swiftly told her it couldn't."

"Oh. Right. Sorry about that."

"Quite alright."

"No it isn't," Rose mumbled.

"What? Rose, it's fine - who'd be able to resist that old face, eh?" he laughed, but Rose was still looking a bit... "Rose...are you...jealous of your mother?" He smirks.

"No! What? Why would I be jealous..." she trails off, blushing furiously.

"Well, because she obviously had the courage to make a move on me, whereas you didn't," he winked. He is joking, because he doesn't entertain for one moment that she would have wanted to, realistically. And yet...she is blushing bright red. He decides to divert them away from that conversation.

"Right. Well, anyway, you should get some rest. It's been a while since you slept properly..." Now he trails off, thinking about last night at Torchwood House. Neither of them has mentioned it. Maybe they never will. He sort of wants to, though. No, he reminds himself, they can't go through that again, not after that almost-confession after New Earth. They're just friends, nothing more. As for last night, he really should have insisted on sitting in the chair. That could have solved all sorts of bother. But she had to go and – oh, wait...it was him who suggested they both lay together on the bed, wasn't it? Him who had pulled her into him. Him who brought out the banana. He shivers.

"I'm not tired. I'd rather stay here with you," Rose replies. He hasn't mentioned the last night, she thinks. Maybe she should. Ask him whether he meant what he said. She's sure he hadn't said it deliberately; he thought she couldn't hear him. When Flora said about them being in love...he never denied it. And she kinda hopes that means what she thinks it means. Although, she doesn't know whether she could cope with another unresolved sexual tension moment like last night, along with what happened last week, after Cassandra and the hospital. When he almost told her. When he almost kissed her.

She knows this is for the best, though. They are just friends, nothing more. When she awoke this morning, things were back to normal. He was still holding her close, but the way he always did, out of close friendship rather than suggestive of something more. They got up, she moaned about him carrying everything but a toothbrush and toothpaste in his pockets; they went and got their reward – and punishment – from Queen Victoria, she won her bet; they hitched a lift back to the TARDIS, they laughed about the Royal Disease. All fairly normal behaviour. Holding hands all the way, but no more almost-kissing. And that was for the best.

However...she has still got that mistletoe, from back with the werewolf. And she really wanted to conduct an experiment, despite the fact it wasn't Christmas.

Maybe this was stupid – maybe they should stop dancing around each other. Maybe she could do this and not ruin their friendship.

"Are you sure? You look sort of dazed. You were brilliant by the way, back there. Werewolf, eh? Easy for Rose Tyler," he beams, proudly.

She breaks out of her daydream and smiles, tongue poking out of the side of her mouth. He knows this smile. It's her teasing smile. He loves this smile. But it is still very distracting.

"Actually, I'll think you'll find that's Dame Rose Tyler to you, Doctor."

"Sir Doctor," he reprimands, mock sternly. He walks over to her, where she's perched on the Captain's chair. She is poking her tongue out him, and he shakes his head. Rassilon, he loves this girl. Oh. See, he thinks, I am admitting it to myself now, so why I can't I just tell her?

Because I'm scared, he replies to himself.

He sits down beside her, and takes out his glasses, putting them on in one swift motion. He appears to study her face. She squirms uncomfortably under his intense inspection of her. What's he doing now?

What am I doing now? Oh, what the hell.

"Rose...you have a really lovely face, you know."

Well, she wasn't expecting that. Blimey.

"Er...thanks?"

"Last night, when said what I said, I meant it. You're beautiful, but you don't even see it."

She is astounded at this.

She scoffs. "Yeah, ok...for a human?" she repeats her reply from last night, not knowing what else to say, and chuckles.

"I told you. For anyone..." he trails off, as if realising what he's been saying for the first time.

"Yeah. Well, you're rather dashing...for a Time Lord."

"Evidently," he says, gesturing to his hair, "I have rather great hair, don't you think?" he scratched his chin, "and a fantastic jaw line..."

"Oh yes," she replies, and as if to prove it, she runs the fingers of her left hand through his luscious full head of hair, and caresses his jaw with her right.

He shivers involuntarily, a strange sensation running down his body almost like desire, but he covers it up by simply saying, "That tickles."

"Good."

"We really look like a Sir and a Dame, don't we?"

"Sure we do," she says, sarcastically.

"Weellll, a rather unconventional Sir and a Dame, I suppose. The best kind."

"Yeah, each of us is pretty unconventional on our own. Together...perhaps we..."

"What?"

"Match." She suddenly realises how silly she must sound – he's a 900 year old alien, with boundless intelligence, and she's just a 19 year old shop girl from London, who didn't even get any A-levels. They couldn't be more different, and she thinks he's about to say so.

But he doesn't.

"Oh. Yes. Quite." He continues to study her face as if she's some alien artefact he's trying to decipher the purpose of.

He looks so nice in those glasses. She wonders...

"Do you need those glasses? 'Cos it seems to me you only wear them to make yourself look...clever," she says. Sexy, she thinks.

"Of course I do. It's just a perk that they make me look as super-intelligent as I am. And as sexy," he grins and winks at her.

She bites her lip and laughs back.

"Of course." She shifts round to face him properly, lifting her legs up and crossing them. He leans back and rests his feet against the side of console, ankles crossed, his head turned to keep his gaze on Rose.

They sit like that for a while, laughing and joking, teasing and flirting, reminiscing about times gone by...

A/N: Hope you're enjoying the story. All that's left to say now is: to review or not to review...that is the question. The answer, however, is rather simple. Go with your instinct But reviews are LOVED. A lot. So please let your instinct be 'to review'. It will make me very happy x