Series Title: Cravings
Series Summary: The Doctor and Rose crave many
things…
Story Title: Little Reminders
Author: Rambling Rose
Rating: PG-13
Summary: "Humans and their fixation with post-it
notes. You'd think they had nothing better to do with their time to
go about marking their territory with little yellow pieces of paper."
Rose raised an eyebrow and gave a half smile, her tongue peeping out
from the corner of her lips as she plucked one of his own post-it's
off the screen. . "Time Lords aren't much better about it,
apparently." She waved the post-it in his face tauntingly.
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all affiliated characters
are trademarks of the BBC. No profit is made to the author with use
of these trademarked entities. No part of the plot or story, herein,
is not to be republished without consent of the author.
Part Seven - Little Reminders
He had told her to be forward and blunt with him, should she ever need to be reminded who she belonged to. He just never took into account she had a bad memory, or rather, that she would pretend to have such a bad memory. For crying out loud, though, Rose usually needed to be "reminded" three and sometimes four times a day.
And even for a Time Lord, who prided themselves on being able to adjust their bio-chemistry so they would never tire out, that was pushing his limitations. Lucky for him though, Rose had wandered off with Jack not too long ago so he was able to sit and enjoy a cup of tea without being harassed.
Jack, the Doctor mused, had actually become a lot less annoying in the recent weeks. And that wasn't only because the lad seized every opportunity to suck up to the Doctor, but because it turned out he was rather useful at helping with repairs on the old ship. So, the Doctor had surrendered and let Jack become one of the team…
Even though Jack spared no moment some mornings on pointing out that the Doctor had left Rose's bedroom door open, therefore keeping the poor lad awake half the night because of her screaming. If he hadn't said it with a cheeky grin, the Doctor may have been inclined to believe him. But, as it were, the Doctor had his own ideas about how Jack knew if the door was open or not. Then there was the occasional teasing comments to Rose about what had her walking funny on some days.
"Doctor. I have a question." Rose flounced into the kitchen, pulling the Doctor away from his speculations. She was armed with a pen and a pad of post-it notes.
"Hopefully, I have an answer," the Doctor replied with a slight smile, putting his cup of tea down. She was using her perky little, child-like 'Rose seeking wisdom' tone as opposed to the sultry 'Rose about to pounce' tone he had become accustomed to hearing as of late. "What do you need?"
Rose scurried over to the table, throwing herself into a seat while simultaneously dragging it over next to the Doctor. She put on her most innocent gaze as she looked up at him and nibbled on her jumper sleeve in mock nervousness. "I just want to know how to write a few things in your language… In Gallifreyan." Her smiled faded shortly after he gave her a perplexed expression. "But, if you can't… or aren't allowed… I…"
"I don't mind," the Doctor interrupted. "Just sort of caught me by surprise. Besides, who would stop me if I wasn't allowed? What do you want to know how to write?"
"My name," Rose grinned, scooting her chair a little closer. She plopped her pen and post-it pad in front of him on the table.
"There's lots of ways you could write your name Rose," the Doctor pointed out, beginning to make a pattern of interlocking circles within one larger circle on the little post-it pad. "For example, this is, 'My name is Rose Tyler'." He removed the little piece of paper and stuck it on the front of Rose's jumper. He paused slightly when he noticed the green jumper, a very familiar green jumper that he had been trying to find for two days. "Did you steal my jumper again?"
"You left it in my floor and I was cold," Rose replied, putting her nose in the air with mock arrogance. "Technically that's not stealing." She cast her eyes at the post-it pad then looked back up to the Doctor. "So this really says 'my name is Rose Tyler'?"
"Why wouldn't it?" the Doctor asked. He gave a slight inward laugh as he took the little piece of paper and stuck it to Rose's forehead. "That's how I used to do it."
Rose's eyes crossed as she attempted to look at the bright yellow piece of paper. "You used to go about with a post it on your forehead that said 'My name is Rose Tyler'?"
"It had my name on it," the Doctor sighed, rolling his eyes. "Well, since it was before I started going by 'The Doctor', it had my academy name on it. The lads all thought it was a laugh, couldn't have been no older than a hundred and fifty. It annoyed the Council to no end when they came to visit… seeing the de rigueur member of the Lungburrow, Oldblood house with a post-it on his forehead that proclaimed 'Hello! My name is Theta Sigma!' only served to remind them why it wasn't such a favoured house. After about the fourth time, the professors and all did their best to hide me when Council came through."
"If they didn't like your family…" Rose said quietly. "Why did they let you become a Time Lord?"
The Doctor put his attention back on the little post-it pad and began to drawing another set of intricate circles, lines, and boxes within another larger circle. "My entire family was oddballs of Gallifreyan society. We were very unconventional, but we were geniuses… Even by Gallifreyan standards. So naturally, they just had to put up with us."
A strange look crossed Rose's features. She cocked her head to the side slightly. "Was that your name?" Rose asked. The Doctor looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Theta?" Rose said slowly. "Theta Sigma was your name?"
"Sort of, yeah," the Doctor shrugged. "As I said, it was an academy name. They gave it to me as a bit of a nickname." He grinned and pulled off the little paper he had been drawing on. "This one is the equivalent to saying 'This belongs to Rose Tyler'."
Rose took the note with a bright smile. "Thanks! Could you do this one with Jack's name instead of mine?"
"So that's what brought this on? You and Jack going about labelling stuff?"
Rose smiled cheekily and tugged on her ear. "Sort of, yeah. I also need one that says 'here' as in…" she patted the table. "Right here."
The Doctor gave a mock snort. "Oh that one is easy." He made a few seemingly random circle and triangle marks on the post-it and handed the pad over to Rose. "Have fun labelling things with Jack."
Rose grinned widely and hopped out of her seat. "We will."
The Doctor watched Rose over-emphasize the swing of her hips as she walked toward the kitchen door. The bottom of the jumper had ridden up so it was framing her just right to show off her backside. "Oy, Rose." Rose stopped and turned toward him. "Make sure your remember who that jumper belongs to later on will ya?"
A slow smile crept to Rose's lips until he could she her tongue perched on the edge of front teeth. She raised her eyebrows curiously. "I'm sure you could think of some inventive ways to get it off later," she said with an edge of suggestion in her tone. Without another word, she flounced out of the kitchen and disappeared.
The Doctor sighed and shook his head. The only thing worse than Rose's little comment was that, as the Doctor went back to drinking his tea, he was actually thinking of the different ways he could steal his jumper back in a few hours.
888
The Doctor slowly walked down the corridor. He was seriously beginning to see a pattern of post-it notes along the way. He wasn't sure which one had pointed out the tread first -- the one on both her bedroom and the primary bathroom doors or the ones scattered about Rose's room.
Her little dresser had bright yellow post-it's on either corner that read "Here" in Gallifreyan -- Given, if he hadn't been the one to actually show her how to write it, he would have been like any other Gallifreyan and mistaken the shaky drawings as saying something completely different. He made a mental note to inform Rose that Gallifreyan text relied heavily on precision.
There were also little notes on her bed, the front of the wardrobe, on the floor, and at random spots on the wall. Yes, there was definitely a trend with the post it placement… Other than that with each one, the drawings tended to become a little more precise. What he didn't understand was how she remembered the exact places…
When he walked out of Rose's bedroom and touched one of the corridor walls, the TARDIS hummed pleasantly. She was preening. And there was only one reason his ship would be proud of herself. She had been helping Rose in her mission to post-it every spot they had thus far gone at it.
"Well, I'm glad you're amused," he muttered into the air. "What if I actually need some of my post-it's?"
He passed about four more on his way to the console room. He paused slightly at the doorway.
Jack had a piece of the grating in his hands and looking down into one of the many spots the Doctor used to access the lower regions of the console. "I don't remember that one," Jack commented. Rose made some kind of comment the Doctor couldn't hear clearly. "No, seriously Rose, I think I would remember walking in on that unexpectedly."
Rose's head popped up out of the lower regions. She grinned widely. "Remember when we had to stop for a few days on that one planet for repairs? The Doctor had to end up rescuing you because the mayor of New Vegas was trying to buy you so her daughter could have a husband?" She crawled out from under the console and Jack put the grating back in its place.
"Console wasn't the only thing that got serviced I take it?" Jack asked. "no wonder I don't remember. I wasn't here."
Rose didn't answer, just smiled smugly. She plopped down on the console bench and began drawing on what was left of her post-it pad. Jack was peeping over her shoulder, watching her carefully copy the other little note stuck to her finger.
"How's he get it to look so pretty?" Rose sighed. "When I do it, it looks like a three year old trying to write their name."
"It's not that bad," Jack assured, putting his hand on her shoulder. "That's supposed to be a triangle Rose, not a circle."
The Doctor strolled casually into the console room. There were several little yellow notes all over the room, more so than in any other place with good reason… it was their favourite place. "Nine hundred years of practice," the Doctor answered. He cast a glance at Jack.
Jack took the hint and gave Rose a slight squeeze of the shoulders. "Well, I'm going to go see if I can find something interesting to do for a little while." At Rose questioning look, Jack nodded toward the Doctor. "Maybe I'll see if I can perfect writing my name in Gallifreyan." He took a post it off the console bench. "See ya."
The Doctor would have to later commend Jack on his ability to know when to leave a room.
Rose grinned widely. "You gave him the look didn't you?" she teased. "You gave him the --- oh what does he call it -- the 'get out before I ravish Rose' look?" She slipped off the bench and put the post it she had just been working with on the spot where she had just been sitting.
"You humans are by far the most amusing life forms I have ever come across," the Doctor commented studying all the little yellow papers scattered across his console. He picked up one of the sphere's off the console. Taking the little sticky note off of it, he looked across the console at Rose. "This is not yours. This is a key part in the setting of the TARDIS coordinates."
Rose gave an overly dramatic sigh and walked over to take the post-it from the Doctor. "Well, it was worth a try wasn't it?" She pursed her lips and then stuck the note to his forehead.
The Doctor snorted and took the post it off his forehead. "Humans and their fixation with post-it notes. You'd think they had nothing better to do with their time to go about marking their territory with little yellow pieces of paper."
Rose raised an eyebrow and gave a half smile, her tongue peeping out from the corner of her lips as she plucked one of his own post-it's off the screen. . "Time Lords aren't much better about it, apparently." She waved the post-it in his face tauntingly. "From the looks of it, it says 'This belongs to the Doctor'. Or, I guess it does," she looked at the collection of shapes on the little note. "It has a lot of the same symbols."
The Doctor took the note from her and replaced it on the edge of the screen. "Actually, it's directions. A map. It actually serves a purpose."
"Oh," Rose mouthed. "I would ask what 'This belongs to the Doctor' looks like in your language but… I just used the last of the post-it notes."
The Doctor just smiled and carefully took the pen from Rose. "Who says I need paper when I have you to write on?"
"Sounds a bit kinky if you ask me," Rose chuckled. "Though that's not something I need much of right now." When the Doctor looked at her questioningly she blushed. "Periodic human female biological stuff."
For a moment, the Doctor looked as if Rose had said something completely foreign to him. The next moment a look of realization crossed his features. "That just means I can't get you out of your knickers, everything else is free territory."
Rose yelped when he promptly pulled his jumper up and off over her head. Before she could even think to turn and run, the Doctor caught her about her waist, pinning her back against his chest. He lifted her feet off the ground and turned so he could pin her pelvis against the console with his hips. Rose grabbed at the console to try and steady herself.
"Hey!" Rose laughed, kicking her feet against nothing but air.
The Doctor clicked the pen and placed a firm hand between Rose's shoulders to keep her chest flush with the console. "Why does this seem so very familiar?"
"Yesterday," Rose hummed as she stopped kicking her feet.
"Oh," the Doctor said in a hushed tone. "No matter, be still."
Rose gave a high pitched squeal mixed with laughter as he nudged one of her bra straps off her shoulder. The Doctor attacked her shoulder with the pen. It took him the better part of two minutes to finish, but when he was, it looked more like he had written a very elaborate mathematics or chemistry equation enclosed by several interlocking circles. By time he had finished, Rose had practically fallen asleep. She weaved on her feet unsteadily when the Doctor allowed her to slide them back to the grating.
"That was relaxing," Rose said lazily, turning to face him. "I could go take a nap right now."
"Hold on," the Doctor said quietly. He gingerly leaned her back against the console and carefully put the same design on Rose's chest, just above the swell of her breasts. When he was done, he smiled, very pleased with himself. "Now, go get dressed, we'll go to Cardiff and put the TARDIS down on the rift so she can charge up."
Rose was busy trying to see what it was the Doctor had written on her chest. "What's it say?"
"I'll tell you later," the Doctor grinned. "Go on now, get some clothes on. Call Mickey, if you must. Get him to meet us there so you can brag about seeing time and space while he sat about eating beans and toast. Find out what day it is and tell him we'll be there in a week."
Rose made to reach for the discarded jumper, but the Doctor pulled her back again. "Doctor, can't I just have the jumper long enough to run along to my room?"
"Nope. It stays. I want to make sure that it doesn't end up disappearing like my red jumper did."
"But… Jack's wandering…"
"No," the Doctor said a little more firmly. "Jack would tease about you walking through the corridor without a shirt on but wouldn't do anything out of the way." Rose gave him a cute little pout, the Doctor pointed toward the door leading to the corridor. "When I get my red one, I'll think about it." He snatched his green jumper up off the grating and tucked it safely under his arm as he watched Rose sigh regretfully and retreat down the corridor, putting her bra strap back in place.
