Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: The BBC owns all, I am merely borrowing.
Spoilers: 4x13 Journey's End
Character/Pairing: 10.5/Rose
The universe has been saved from imminent destruction yet again, but the entire planet is none the wiser. The populace barely even notices the stars going out. After all, city skies only have a handful of stars on a normal night and a few less hardly cause a riot. Pete Tyler still has to meet with his lawyers about that stubborn woman who claims that Vitex turned her hair orange. And then there is the rampant six-legged alien obsessed with the color red. He's dispatched two Torchwood teams already, but they are finding it impossible to track down the alien or the plethora of road signs it stole. The main office continues to field calls from confused and often irate traffic officers. Still, dimensional cannons must be funded and the aftermath dealt with.
Pete nervously adjusts the knot of his tie as he watches the wranglers bring the zeppelin down to the tarmac. He'd panicked a week ago, when he'd come home to a wailing child, confused babysitter and a hasty note from Jackie tacked to their bedroom door. Although, if anything could save the universe, Pete thought, it would be Prentice women and their stubborn determination. The wind picks up for a moment as the airship settles and Pete absently rubs his wedding band, simpler than his first and so much more meaningful. Of course, his wife is among the first to appear on the gangway and a few steps behind her is Rose with...the Doctor. It really is the Doctor. He's grinning like mad and observing the airstrip with interest, but is careful to remain a step behind Rose.
"Pete!" Jackie exclaims, embracing him. "I'm so glad we finally made it. Kept gettin' nothin' but fish on that zeppelin, bein' from Norway. And the toast was just horrible."
"Thought I might've lost you," Pete admits.
"To rotten cooking?" Jackie scoffs. "Never."
"Doctor." Pete reaches past his wife to firmly shake the other man's hand. "Jackie told me, but I didn't believe it. It really is you."
"Yep." The Doctor adjusts his suit jacket, eyeing it with skepticism. "Well, mostly."
"Mickey?"
"Stayed behind," Rose explains, voice barely above a whisper.
"Ah." Pete nods. "Well, we'd best be off then. Before the press make an appearance."
A black unmarked limo waits for them just beyond the fence that borders the airstrip. Pete nods intermittently as Jackie continues to detail the limitations of zeppelin travel and they pile into the vehicle.
The Doctor slouches in the leather seat, leaning his head to the side so it just touches Rose's shoulder. She smiles and squeezes his hand. "He'll need an identity, soon as it can be done," she informs Pete.
"Of course. I'll have the office send over the paperwork. Be easier than Rose and Jacks, I suspect. Had to invent all sorts of excuses for suddenly havin' a wife and daughter. You can be any man."
The Doctor frowns. He isn't sure he likes the sound of that. Just being any man. Well, just any human biological metacrisis that is.
"Wait'll the paparazzi get a good look at 'im," Jackie interjects, looking the Doctor over in a fashion even his previous incarnation had found uncomfortable.
"Mum!" Rose hisses.
"They got this fascination with Rose. She makes the tabloids on a regular rotation. Hair, clothing, habits...they go on about everythin'." Jackie leans in, conspiratorially. "There's this fan club even."
The Doctor perks up. "Fan club?"
"Mum! He doesn't want to hear 'bout all that. It's silly," Rose insists, cheeks reddening. "And...and annoying."
"Well, you'd better get used to it, sweetheart. You go out with him and you'll be on the front page in no time."
"Why's that?" asked the Doctor.
"Um, people in this universe have got this thing with...great hair," Rose mumbles as an excuse.
The Doctor beams. "Really? Great hair?"
Rose rolls her eyes. "Mum, can you just--"
"Funny thing to worship. Great hair. Well, for humans anyway. If we were from the outer moon of Panasha it would be practically guaranteed. The Panashans are born bald you see and..."
"Still goes on a bit, doesn't he?" Jackie interrupts.
The Doctor feels Rose's hand clamp down tightly around his.
"Me an' the Doctor are going to my flat first."
"But I thought we'd have tea together. S'almost four o'clock." Jackie shakes her head. "An' the Doctor needs to meet Tony."
"We'll stop by later. Promise," Rose assures her.
"Sweetheart, last time you said that you vanished without a trace. Had to corner Mickey to find out where you'd gone of to."
"This isn't like last time."
"Better not be, Rose. If it is, I'll know who to blame."
Jackie's glare flicks to the Doctor and he swallows hard.
Pete leans forward to intervene. "Jacks..."
"How would tomorrow be?" the Doctor asks.
Everyone looks to the Doctor in surprise.
"Morning? Afternoon? Three ante meridiem?" he asks. "No?"
"Oh, all right then," Jackie mutters.
"Really? At three in the morning? That's a strange time to have...OW!" The Doctor jumps at the sudden pain in his shin caused by Rose's foot. "I mean, perfectly lovely time for tea. I've had it plenty of times then, myself. Traditional in some regions of the Hourglass Nebula, I believe. Although, most of the inhabitants are giant slugs, so them having tea at all is rather unexpected." He rubs the back of his neck and looks aside to find Rose staring at him in shock. "What?"
"You just offered to have tea with my mum," she says, incredulous.
"Yep."
"You've never agreed to havin' tea with my mum."
"Of course I have, Rose. Your mum makes fantastic tea. Remember that time you twisted your ankle? You insisted on going home even though I could have fixed it in a snap. We were there for days..."
"You only hung around 'cause you thought I was too jeopardy friendly to leave unsupervised."
"Yes, well..." he mumbles.
She leans into him, resting her head against his chest. "Thanks."
Pete looks equally grateful as he quietly instructs the driver to change course.
When they arrive at the flat, Rose immediately takes the Doctor's hand and leads him deeper inside. "Somethin' I want to show you."
They enter her bedroom which appears slightly more lived in than the other rooms. There are books and paperwork scattered across every available surface. The pink sheets are rumpled as if she'd just left that morning, but the thin sheen of dust on the furniture tells another story. She comes to stop in front of a large wardrobe built of a dark cherry wood. The doors are covered in delicate carvings so detailed that the Doctor wishes he had his glasses to see them more clearly.
"Your wardrobe?" he asks, perplexed.
"It's..." She purses her lips. "Just...open it."
He complies, taking hold of the engraved knob and turning it. The door is stubborn at first and he pulls harder until suddenly the latch gives way. He opens it carefully until he sees a hint of what lies beyond and then he roughly pushes it the rest of the way. His breath catches. "Impossible." He cautiously lifts one foot over the threshold, finding the ground beyond firm and real. "It's...it's..."
"Yeah." She takes his hand, guiding him into the spacious interior beyond. He stumbles, numb from the shock of what she's showing him. It's a TARDIS. There's no doubt. He can even sense it now, faint. Real. The interior is a blank slate, similar to how his ship first appeared when he'd stolen it. But it's already imprinted on...Rose.
"Been here a month an' I found it in an antique shop. Got it cheap 'cause they thought it didn't open. Opened for me though." She smiles, leaning back and resting her hands on the central console. "Didn't tell anyone. Mum still complains about me buyin' a useless piece of furniture."
"He's gorgeous," the Doctor whispers hoarsely, brushing a hand along the edge of the console. The ship hums in response and a few lights flicker on.
"Oh," Rose gasps, looking around at the areas the lights reveal. "S'never done that before. I thought it...he was dead."
"No. Far from it actually. Just hibernating." He frowns, reaching out with his now limited senses. "Waiting for something. Or someone." He turns to her. "I can charge it."
"Really?"
The Doctor pauses, eyes scanning the controls. "Remember when the TARDIS crashed here? I had to recharge a power cell and...well, give up ten years of my life in the process. Now that I'm part human, I might have to give up more." He can't meet her eyes. He wants to do this, wants nothing more than to take this miraculous ship to the ends of the universe. But a decade of his life, his human life, is suddenly very precious. He feels Rose's warm palm caressing his as she takes his hand.
"S'not worth it. It's not. We'll travel another way." She pulls him away from the console and he follows reluctantly. "It's a start though, yeah?"
"Yeah." He carefully closes the doors behind them and rests his palms against the rough wood, absorbing the comforting hum.
Rose wraps her arms around his waist, burying her head between his shoulder blades. They breath in tandem for a moment, hopes and dreams perfectly aligned. The silence is interrupted by the ring of her cellphone and she releases him.
"Torchwood," she explains, before taking the call. "Hey. Yeah, m'back. No, I know I didn't... Right. Of course." She snaps the phone shut. "I've gotta go to the office to...take care of somethin'. Paperwork, you know. I should be back in an hour. There's tea in the kitchen an' we can get takeout later, yeah?"
He doesn't want her to leave, to be left alone in this unfamiliar space with a hauntingly familiar object just yards away. But he draws her close for a kiss, watching dejectedly as she finds an overcoat in the hall closet and shrugs it on.
"I'll be back before you know it. Promise."
He nods, only marginally reassured, and Rose walks out, the door shutting with a soft snick.
Desperately in need of a distraction, the Doctor wanders the flat until he finds Rose's laptop perched on the edge of an end table beside the sofa. Switching it on, he browses the net and soon has a passable understanding of the variations in the historical events of this dimension. However, he finds no evidence of an obsession with great hair and begins to suspect he may have misunderstood. He does discover many references to the Tyler family in recent news. Pete and Jackie at various functions, Vitex stocks rising and Rose going about mundane tasks in the city. There are several conspiracy websites dedicated to the reappearance of Jackie Tyler with her mysterious daughter and he chuckles at the detailed cloning explanations. Then there's the Rose Marion Tyler Unofficial Fan Club, RMTUFC for short. He wrinkles his nose. It's all very...pink. Although, he didn't know that Rose likes bacon crisps or that her favorite bear is a janda, which looks like a panda only with orange fur. These fans appear very well informed, so he notes the address for future reference.
He has the toaster almost entirely diassembled when he realizes it's been two hours and twenty-one minutes since Rose left.
It's at three hours exactly that he panics.