This isn't going to be particularly long as a fic. I just wanted to work through a few scenes with them since I love the Doctor and Rose so. I kind of have an idea where it's going now too thanks to surfing the wiki a bit. I'm sure this will earn its T rating soon enough. Don't seem to want to rush into anything right now, these crazy kids.

Disclaimer: See part 1.

Waking up to an empty bed didn't bother her half so much as the smears of dirt and grease from its other occupant who had somehow slipped out without her knowledge. The Doctor was full of tricks, and getting out of a bed without waking the person next to him was only minor magic. With a sigh, Rose dragged herself up and began to strip the bed. It didn't matter that they had maids and a cook in the Tyler home, some things were better to do yourself now and then.

The hamper was bursting, but somehow she found a clean pair of jeans and a top that would breathe if she had to start running suddenly. Her days with the Doctor had taught her the use of a truly comfortable and versatile wardrobe. You could lose valuable time trying to run in formals.

She ran a brush through her hair a few times and grabbed a hair tie which she used to fashion a messy ponytail as she made her way to the kitchen. When she entered she found the Doctor chatting with the cook, in Italian, and when it was the cook who noticed her presence first she couldn't help but feel a bit put out. Ignoring her, giving her space, barging into her private areas, she had no clue was the method was behind his madness these days.

"Roberto says that we should visit Florence, not Paris. But it's your vacation so I refuse to give you any number of exciting reasons that Florence could interest you. Though apparently there are hundreds and Roberto had only gotten to the 12th."

"What makes you think you're coming with me?" She meant it to sound teasing, but something peevish in her voice wiped the smile off his face for a second. "I'm kidding." She hadn't been able to do anything quite right around him yet. It was all discordant right up until…

He slid onto a stool at the kitchen counter and beckoned her over. Next to one another, digging into reheated crepes that the Doctor no doubt requested be made long before Rose woke up, their shoulders brushed as the Doctor resumed the conversation with Roberto in Italian. This is what was so seductive right now, the familiarity, the way her body practically hummed when they were close. He had taken the time to get cleaned up so he was in his usual blue suit and smelling of soap.

Their knees bumped and Rose felt herself start as the Doctor cleared his throat and finished up with a wave of his hands and a laugh in Roberto's direction. Giving her space again, she thought almost angrily and she stuffed a bite of crepe in her mouth too large to chew easily as a way to keep her mind occupied.

"I didn't know you liked them so well, would you like another plate? This body seems like it needs constant refueling and I'm amazed at the urgency of it all. How do you do it every day, attending to all the maintenance of this physiology?"

"When you grow up with it, it isn't so strange. I'm sure there were things you did growing up that I couldn't imagine."

It was the wrong thing to say, and she knew it when the light in his eyes dimmed and he was centuries away on another planet. "Yes, you're certainly right about that." He sounded vague and distracted only to snap back to her with the determination of a war vet who long ago learned deflections for things he didn't want to discuss. "Have you packed yet?"

"What?"

"I expect the zep will be ready to take off in another 20 minutes so there's no sense in delaying departure. Really Rose, you'd think we hadn't discussed this already."

Sputtering a bit, Rose got up from her stool and poured herself a cup of morning tea. "Storming my room like the beaches of Normandy so we could talk about… about… vacation plans at 4am hardly seems like something you could expect me to take seriously!"

The Doctor got up and picked the tea from her hand, his skin brushing hers and leaving warmth that slowly spread. She tried to attribute to the mug, but that became less believable as he led her by the hands to the stairs again and the feeling intensified. "Think of all the remarkable things you take for granted every day, Rose. You wake up in a stationary living space, you breath oxygen mixed with a thousand other things that could kill the species of any number of other planets, and you place colored and textured chemicals on your skin in a ritual that millions of female humans replicate to various affect. And you look lovely by the way." He squeezed her hand and met her eyes in that way that made her knees weaken a bit. "So get up there and get packed because we take to the air in 18 minutes!"

Her feet moved on their own and she was already to her door when a stubborn voice in the back of her head told her something was up with all this. Why was he insisting they go somewhere together after weeks of isolation? Why now? And what did the sonic screwdriver have to do with all this? Somehow it all had to be connected, and her instinct for these things had always been asset to the Doctor in their travels to the point where he didn't even bother curtailing her investigations towards the end of their time together. There was more to this trip than an attempt to get her to snap out of her semi-depressed funk.

Ten minutes after the Doctor had sent her on her merry way, Rose was shoving too many clothes into a too small suitcase. Most of the clothes were dirty, but she'd worry about that later. The Doctor was always rushing, and ironically she never had enough time when he was driving the agenda.

Bent over the case, swearing in every language she could think of, she tried to get the sides to meet so that the clasp wouldn't pop in mid-flight. An amused snort from her doorway made her start and the Doctor stopped leaning against the frame to come in and give her a hand.

"How many years did you pack for?" He was smiling more, but through gritted teeth as he pressed the top down with his whole body and did the clasps for her.

"Just because not all of us can wear the same suit every day like some people doesn't mean you get to judge."

"I never!"

"Are you saying you have a whole closet full of the same thing? Don't lie to me Doctor, we went shopping together for you if you recall."

The Doctor sat on top of the barely closed suitcase and rested the palm of his hand against one cheek. "And if you'll recall I didn't come home with half as much as you and Jackie."

"My mum does like to shop, doesn't she?" With a young child to shop for, Jackie never ran out of reasons to visit the shops these days and with Pete's fortune they could afford it.

"She's a champion. And can she ever haggle! Fearsome. Positively ruthless."

They were sharing a laugh and as the room quieted she noticed the intensity of his gaze, and the way she thought perhaps his eyes had flickered up from somewhere else to meets her eyes at the last second. Her heartbeat sped up and she wondered how his one heart was faring. It was so damn easy for him! Gone a year or a week or an hour and always he could insert himself back into her life like nothing had changed!

Unable to follow the tenor of her thoughts, the Doctor at least recognized that it was time to give her time and he dragged the overstuffed bag with the care of an unexploded bomb towards the general direction of the front door. A car would take them to the airstrip and Rose grabbed her bag with some other essentials as well as grabbing the passport she never thought she'd need that Mickey had delivered to her years ago.

Mickey. He was alive somewhere in another plane of existence, doing good, fighting evil across the universe with Harkness or whatever government agency he felt like joining. He had come a long way from small time computer hacking and scavenging the internet for alien sightings. He had chosen the world of his birth, but Rose hadn't been given a choice. Or had she simply made the wrong choice?

"Rose?"

At the Doctor's voice calling from down the hallway she started and almost angrily stuffed the passport into her jewelry case only to slam the top down. It wasn't valid here anyway. She should shred it when she got back from France, or incinerate it. Holding onto it wasn't going to bring Mickey back over the Void for a chat and a cup of tea.

"Coming!"