When they stepped outside, they were hit with a wall of sound. Drums pounded and an orchestra of strings filled the air with music. A large crowd danced in a garba line around the square.
Priya offered, "You are both welcome to dance with all of us if it would please you."
"Come on, let's go dance with them! Unless you forgot your moves when you regenerated?" she teased with that tantalizing tongue peaking from behind her teeth.
"You go ahead, Rose." He gave her a half smile.
"Suit yourself, then, Doctor." She followed Priya and the ladies joined the garba line with laughter.
He leaned on the wall of the restaurant.
The Doctor locked his eyes on Rose in the garba line. She was a natural dancer, easily losing herself in the music as she picked up the moves. The dance wasn't sensual, but he found his jaw clenched and his stomach tightened as he watched her hands gracefully flow through the air and her hips pop to the beat. He watched her bare feet carry her across the ground, her skirt splay around her as she spun, and her smile as she reveled in the presence of the other women around her.
All his worry from earlier seemed to grow smaller.
Her absence that afternoon wasn't vindictive manipulation, a move to pry his affection from him out of guilt. Rose was stronger than that, and he loved her all the more for it.
He also knew that she wouldn't take any bollocks from anybody, including him. She knew he was avoiding her again with his silence. She had gently opened the door for him, and he shuffled his feet like a little boy who didn't know if he deserved to come inside. He let his guilt over his past take the forefront of that conversation, but only merely as a shield. He'd made their conversation about himself.
What's more, after not ever dealing with it in the first place, he'd brushed off her moment as the Bad Wolf with a mere scientific explanation as if his feelings and resulting actions could have been rationalized away. They hadn't dealt with that moment together, but it was what had caused his regeneration, her absorbing the heart of the TARDIS and his kiss to save her life. His love for her in that moment was written into this body's DNA.
In truth, he would have loved to dance next to her in the line. What a memory it would have created for them, and he missed the opportunity.
But he held back. Always holding back when it mattered, he was. And he let it gnaw at him for a moment, ground his teeth a bit, cataloging a feeling he never wanted to have again.
His mind returned to the plan he had formulated earlier. A bit of a risky move for him, considering his actions that afternoon, but Rose Tyler was worth it. The fear of eventually losing her wasn't worth running through life without her now.
Rose glanced at the restaurant, hoping to make eye contact with the Doctor, but he wasn't there. She returned her attention to dancing.
When the song finished a few moments later, a hand grabbed hers and pulled her from the line of dancers. She startled for a second and then met the intent eyes of the Doctor, and her breath intake was sharp. She hadn't seen those eyes for some time.
"Come with me," he said, and led her by hand back to the TARDIS in the nearby alley.
"First things first, Rose," he finally spoke when they were standing outside the TARDIS doors, taking both of her hands in his. "You mentioned earlier that you'd been having dreams about the Game Station and the Bad Wolf. You're not supposed to remember any of that. You absorbed the Time Vortex in the heart of the TARDIS. Rose, you're human, and it would have killed you—"
"If you hadn't saved me," Rose offered.
"Yes," he said softly, and Rose saw him retreat into his thoughts for only a second, reliving the memory, "but I'm worried about you. I need to see if these leaking memories are causing you any harm, because if it is, that will be my first priority over anything else. Mind if I run a few quick scans?"
She raised her eyebrows in reply. "Erm, sure, I guess."
"Brilliant," he grinned and dropped her hands to remove the sonic screwdriver from his jacket pocket. With a waggle of his brows, he tossed it in the air and caught it, then swung it around in one deft move of his fingers, all without looking, at which Rose giggled. He hummed in amusement, and then activated the scan. He swung the sonic back and forth over her eyes a few times, and then checked the readings.
"Oh…oh, Rose, this is…" His eyes were wide and he was clearly at a loss for words.
"Doctor, is it bad?" she asked with a bit of concern.
"Rose, no. This is…good. This is more than good. It's brilliant. Oh, you brilliant, beautiful ship, you!" He hugged the TARDIS, and then kissed her blue exterior.
"Doctor, what is it?"
"Rose, you remember that the ship and I, we have a telepathic link? We're bonded, she and I." He gently traced a finger over one of the square insets in the door, and then he turned to Rose with warmth in his eyes and his smile.
"Yeah."
"Lately, I've been noticing more of a…well, connection between the two of you. I thought it must be because she simply likes you more than me, and, well, really, she does." He chuckled.
"What do you mean, Doctor?"
"Well, when we came back from the parallel universe, I knew you were mourning, but, Rose, the TARDIS was mourning with you. I could feel it." He gently stroked down her arms and retook her hands. "And then, after you called me to pick you up, well, you know how I drive the TARDIS, but she made it back to you precisely right after we hung up. Nothing grandiose, though, all little things. But then you mentioned having the Bad Wolf dream last night. Rose, I dreamt about it last night, too. I think she's been transmitting that dream to the both of us."
"So, what does all of that mean for me?"
"Rose, when you absorbed the Vortex, the TARDIS—she altered your neural pathways to accommodate fitting herself into your human brain. I took the Vortex out of you, but the pathway remained for her to remain connected with you. It's not a bond quite like the one I have with the TARDIS, but you have a link with her, too."
Rose dropped one of his hands and turned to look at the blue box with a bit of wonder in her eyes. "I suppose this would explain why that werewolf said to me, 'There is something of the wolf about you.' He said I burned like the sun. I didn't know what he meant then."
"Rose, you're so brilliant." He smiled. "The connection isn't that strong now, but I could help you with that, if you'd like. And then you could even learn to fly her."
She met his eyes with a sparkle in hers. "Yeah, I'd like that."
Oh, how he'd missed this between them. All at once, longing for her filled his hearts. The bridge wasn't completely rebuilt, but this was a start.
