Chapter 4:

Author's Note: Hello again! In this chapter I decided to dig a bit into Rose's backstory. I hope it doesn't cotradict the show. And I realize Rose may be a little OOC in this chapter, but the kind of axiety attack I'm trying to describe here can happen to anyone. Hope you enjoy!

"So, how was work?" asked the Doctor as Rose stumbled through the opening of their tree-house. The question took her aback. It sounded like something a man would ask his wife.

The Doctor was leaning back in one of the sits with his legs propped up on the table and only one side of the sit touched the ground. It looked very unstable.

"Oh, it was awful," answered Rose awkwardly sitting down on the bed. She's thought about not telling the truth but decided against it. She was pretty sure the Doctor would see through it.

He immediately stopped smiling and asked her: "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, it's just really hard work, because the shovels aren't really shovels and I think the Gallorians hate me," answered Rose smiling reassuringly. The Doctor took his feet off the table then and sat next to her on the bed.

"Heeey," he said as he put his arms around her shoulders. "Nobody could hate you," said the Doctor. But that only made Rose more upset. It didn't mean anything, did it? He would've said that to anyone, that's just the kind of person he was.

"No, Doctor, nobody could hate you. You're the fun one, the smart one, the one that saves the day. You're the hero. I'm the sidekick, your companion, the one that asks the questions and gets in trouble. They don't have to like me, because I give them nothing. You came here and became a doctor. I became a farmer. And a poor one at that." Rose's voice wasn't raised, more sad; she didn't mean to judge, she just wanted to make the Doctor understand that the way everybody treats him is not necessary how they treat everybody around him. But he took it differently. There was sadness in his eyes and a glimpse of anger. The Doctor rarely used that look. It was reserved for the times he had to resort to violence, but then there was much more anger and now it was mostly sadness. Rose couldn't hold his stare so she leaned onto the Doctor so that her head lied on his shoulder.

"Don't think like that. I'm not a hero and you're not a sidekick. I'm a traveller and you're a signpost. I'd be lost without you," he said slowly stroking Rose's hair, the way mothers do when they try to calm their children down. It was so soothing she would've fallen asleep if she weren't completely aware of her closeness to the Doctor. She felt every bit of her body that was touching his the way a blind man might feel every dot of Braille for itself before connecting them to make sense of the letters. Her mind was confused trying to focus on the Doctor's words as if that would help, but all she heard was his voice synching perfectly with the vibrations his speech was sending through her. On the other hand her body wasn't confused at all. It reacted as a body might, independent from the mind and even the heart.

She moved away from the Doctor much to his surprise but didn't say anything as her mouth was completely dry. For a while he didn't say anything either, but it wasn't awkward. They were talking with their eyes again. It became almost as easy as actually talking. Her eyes were telling him that she understood and something else Rose hoped the Doctor wouldn't understand. And his eyes were just earnest, never blinking, like a pathway into his hearts. They were telling her he felt what he said. But she had to blink sometime.

"Lie down for a while," the Doctor said then and stood up leaving Rose alone on the bed. She kicked her shoes off and finally stretched her back. She was tiered and more that capable to sleep with the window open. When she woke up, the Doctor was gone as she'd expected. She had no idea how long she was out; we have to get a clock, she wrote a mental note. And outside the sun was still about where it was before.

Without a reason Rose decided to go for a stroll. Outside she took a good look at their tree house. You couldn't miss it, the bottom hole was almost twice the normal size. On her left was what appeared to be the main square and on her right were a few houses and the vast fields. She realised then that the ground was truly level; she couldn't see one hill, not even on the horizon.

Rose turned left towards the square. Gallorians paid very little attention to her for which she was thankful. They were busy hovering around the clay buildings that encircled the square. They were different from the ones the Gallorians lived in; they were mostly wider and lower, but still circular with wide entrances so the inside could be seen from afar. Some of them even looked like big brown red igloos and only a few were rectangular or elliptic. And inside she could see everything from shops to what seemed to be administration offices. Rose noticed then that all of the buildings had signs that the TARDIS had translated: Fish market, Sweets from Far Away, Education, Gallorians for rent, Job market. That one caught her attention.

Inside was empty except for a bored Gallorian sitting behind a stone block that was supposed to work as a desk. Rose gulped and slowly walked inside. The Gallorian official looked at her with nothing but boredom.

"We're closed!" he called out, clearly expecting her to turn around and leave. When she stopped in front of the desk he looked at her, this time with great annoyance.

"You can't be closed," said Rose. "You work here." The Gallorian just repeated: "We're closed." Rose gave up trying to make sense of that. Instead she asked: "Why?" The Gallorian figured she had no idea what was going on.

"Because of the new law. Chief Galla banned all job changes. You do what he tells you to do and be thankful for he has brought a blessing on our land." The last part sounds like something learned from a textbook.

What he said didn't really take Rose by surprise. She suspected something like that. Still, she was disappointed.

"What are you doing here then?" she asked.

"Guarding the documents," he said and pointed at a pile of clay tablets behind him. Rose nodded and left. So farming it is then. Better make a career of it.

She left the square. She needed the privacy of her home, no matter how limited it was. And the Doctor should've been back. But when she climbed inside and called out twice, nobody appeared to be in. The ever burning torches were giving away an uneven light and the sun was still bright, but the room was very dim at the back of the apartment, where the desk was. She never noticed it before. Once this dimness would've seemed peaceful for her, but now it just made her anxious. Seriously anxious. She knew her fear wasn't rational and everything in her tried to fight against it.

She lay down on the bed hoping to fall asleep quickly. But of course she didn't. To occupy her mind she recounted her life trying to remember all the good moments. She didn't focus on the Doctor really. More on her life before then.

She thought of her mother and of all the meals they had together, just the two of them. Rose would stop by the little private fast food place to get dinner and then they would eat together, her mother talking all the time, mostly about unimportant things and then they would watch some TV and her mother would comment and make her laugh. It seemed like yesterday this was her every day. She thought of the time she brought home a stray kitty she'd found on the way from school. She wanted to keep it, but Jackie insisted of getting rid of her. When Rose started to cry, Jackie took the kitty and gave it to their neighbours. This way Rose could still see the kitty every day. Rose understood then why Jackie did that. Money had always been tight in their family. It was to be expected with a widowed single mother and a wild and adventurous little girl.

Which brought her to think about her father. She didn't even remember him except for the short time they spent together when she went back in time to the day he died. Formally she was two then. But she remembered his grave. Often she'd go there with her mum or, when she was older, by herself. His grave didn't bother her really. She liked it. It was her only link to her father, a small tombstone with his name: Peter Alan Tyler. There was always a bouquet of plastic flowers on his grave, but sometimes Rose would pick some fresh flowers on the gardens and put them in between the plastic ones. She thought the mix made the grave look pretty, but every time her mother came, she threw them away. A few days after Pete died another person was buried next to him. People used to call her Lady Smith. She was a lovely old lady, a retired seamstress, but Rose didn't know her. But she came to know her grandson.

She'd first seen him at the graveyard. He also brought flowers, but he always came with his father and he let him put flowers in the vase. They were always fresh and different. Rose thought of the long walks home from school with the boy, Mickey, and their conversations, different every day, like flowers on the grave. Sometimes he would stay at her house and they would play or study together. And once when she was thirteen he just kissed her. He ran home soon after that. It never happened again and they never spoke of it until Rose asked him out four years later. They broke up many times but always got back together. Rose remembered how Mickey sometimes pleaded her. He seemed pathetic at the time but after she left she's realised how sweet he actually was.

All this memories calmed her down. For a moment she forgot she's alone, lying on a bed on an alien planet and that in a few hours she has to go back to digging holes with a broken shovel. The Doctor came in then with a cheerful smile that disappeared the moment he saw the heap of sadness that was Rose. She was curled up into a ball, shivering slightly, her eyes wide open. It took her a while to grasp the reality of where she was, and when she did, the angst came back. But the Doctor was here now; he'll take care of it.

Rose quickly hugged him. "Where were you?" she asked, her voice barely audible.

"At the Court," he answered quickly as if the answer weren't important. Rose remembered then. She was supposed to do two and a half hours of personal service at the Court.

"Oh, shit," she murmured. Forgetting everything about her breakdown she started for the entrance.

"Rose," said the Doctor still standing next to the bed. It was enough to stop her. "I did five hours." he continued.

Rose understood what he meant. He did her shift while she was sleeping. She should've seen it coming.

"You didn't have to do that," said Rose, though she knew he thought differently.

"No, I didn't have to. I did it to thank you. For being here with me. It's my fault we're stuck here, you shouldn't have to work too." he said softly, genuinely thanking her.

But there was one word that hit Rose hard.

"Wait, we're stuck here?"