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"These are good chips," said Rose enthusiastically. "I'm starving."
"Yeah, sorry about that," replied the Doctor sheepishly. "I didn't mean to forget about lunch."
"Oh, if I can guilt you into buying me chips-"
"Actually, you're paying for the chips," the Doctor muttered.
"What sort of date are you?" demanded Rose playfully.
"The penniless sort, now cough up. I know you've got enough to pay for the chips at least."
"If I'd known I'd have to pay-" began Rose indignantly, but the Doctor gave her a pointed look and she conceded. "All right, fine, I would've gone anyway."
"Rose, someday I think you're going to marry a chip."
"Stop it." Rose's mouth twitched.
"I do! And your wedding dress will have to have pockets-"
"Doctor, stop it."
"And you'll invite me, because I'm the best thing that ever happened to you-"
"Well, yeah, you're definitely going to be at my wedding if I ever have one," mumbled Rose with a blush.
'Cause the only person I'll ever want to marry is you.
"Splendid! And if you don't invite me I'll just gate-crash. Rose and Chip Tyler. Has a sort of ring to it, don't you think?"
Rose started giggling madly. "St-stop!"
"Oh, I haven't even gotten started yet," replied the Doctor, and then they were talking enthusiastically, joking, laughing, just like proper best mates. But sometimes the Doctor would get this look in her eyes when he looked at her, sort of furtive and hopeful at the same time, and Rose would feel an explosion of warmth and affection in her stomach.
They headed back to the TARDIS and the Doctor asked Rose to go get Martha so that they could begin traveling.
Rose grinned and nodded. "Happy to oblige. So where are you taking her?"
"I'm thinking maybe the suburbs of New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York, or Shakespearean England-"
"Oooh, Shakespeare, please please please!" gasped Rose. "I've never met Shakespeare before!"
"All right then. Executive decision from Captain Rose. We're off to see Shakespeare."
"I'm a captain now? I like that. Let me go get Martha and see if she's ready." Rose hurried down the stairs of the TARDIS, walked across a rickety rope bridge, opened a pair of enormous double doors leading into an enormous living room, and walked down a corridor lined with bedrooms, the end of which had a door with the nameplate Doctor on it. She had never been into his room.
As Rose had expected, the TARDIS had added on a new room for Martha. The corridor was getting ridiculously long, but thankfully the TARDIS placed the newest bedroom nearest to the beginning of the corridor, which also discouraged Rose from going into the Doctor's room.
She knocked on the door. "Martha? We're about ready to take off. You want to come out? Going to be a bit of a bumpy ride, but it's really worth it."
There was no reply.
"Martha?" called Rose again, and then, "Martha, I'm coming in, okay?"
She opened the door hesitantly. Martha lay asleep on the bed, not even under the covers, her shoes still on.
"Okay," whispered Rose, and shut the door, hurrying to tell the Doctor that they might have to postpone the trip to Shakespearean England.
Rose lay curled in her bed, exhausted from the events of the day and the kiss that she had received from the Doctor-whether or not it had any real meaning she had loved it just the same. She closed her eyes and relived that wonderful moment when the Doctor had kissed her.
His arm sort of wrapped around my waist, and then his hand cupped my chin, and then he ran off-
Back up.
And there were fireworks for five seconds until he ran off-
Back up.
The world was perfect until he ran off, without any explanation, and let me believe he was dead-
Rose sighed. Sometimes the Doctor was utterly wonderful. Sometimes he was utterly insensitive. Sometimes he mixed wonderful and insensitive into such a muddle that she couldn't tell which was which.
She woke up late the next morning and stumbled blearily down to breakfast, where Martha was sitting dressed in clothing from the wardrobe room and eating something green and many-legged with an expression of disgust.
"Oh, you don't have to eat that!" gasped Rose, now a bit more awake. "You got the wrong fridge. Same thing happened to me when I came down for breakfast my first morning here. And my second, actually. Took the Doctor a week to realize that I didn't like whatever he eats for breakfast and preferred normal human food instead. He eats normal human food usually, but in his last incarnation he liked alien food better."
Martha, who looked rather relieved to see the other fridge full of slightly more normal fruits and vegetables, replied "Incarnation?"
"He'll explain at some point," Rose yawned. "Where is he, anyway?"
"Sleeping in, I think," giggled Martha. "Heard some snoring from his room. He snores remarkably loud, did you know?"
"Yeah, he does that." Rose turned to the fridge and pulled out a box of cereal. "He also put the cereal in the fridge again, even after I told him you don't eat it chilled. Half the time he's smarter than me and the other half he acts like a hyperactive ten-year-old."
Martha laughed. "What kind of cereal is that?"
"Normal kind," replied Rose. "That's the best answer you're going to get. Sorry. I sort of had to use the boxes to make a cardboard sword-there were these blobs that were trying to kill us and their weakness was cardboard among other things-and then I had to find new boxes so now I have no idea what kind of cereal it is."
"Is your life always like this?"
"Now it is," Rose answered, piling cereal into two bowls and getting out a carton of milk, "but I used to have a simpler one. Wouldn't miss this for the world, though."
Martha smiled. "You think I'll be like this too, someday?"
"Not everyone wants to stay forever," Rose replied. "Haven't known you long enough to be able to tell if you're going to stick with us. There was this woman, Donna-brilliant. Only person I've ever seen slap the Doctor, and more than once too. But she didn't want to come with us. The Huon particles residing in her got attracted to the Huon particles on our ship, and she was part of this plan for the-well-you remember the Christmas star? Long story. Anyway. She didn't want to stay."
"Ah," said Martha, who plainly had no idea what Rose was talking about. "So are we going to go yet? It was nice to have a bit of a rest."
"I should go and wake the Doctor up after I've had something to eat," Rose responded, taking two spoons out of a drawer. "Cereal?"
"Ta."
There was silence for a while as the two girls ate their breakfast, and it was a little bit awkward. Thankfully, Rose finished her breakfast quickly, and excused herself to go wake the Doctor.
The Doctor was tangled in the blankets, his face planted firmly in a pillow. Rose stifled a giggle before sitting down on the edge of his bed and lightly shaking him.
"Wake up, Doctor."
"Hmm," mumbled the Doctor into the pillow, and then "Rose."
Rose smiled softly. "Thought you didn't need to sleep?"
"Rose," breathed the Doctor again.
Rose shook him again, her cheeks slightly pink. "Wake up, Doctor."
The Doctor yawned into the pillow, flipped over, and stared blearily up at Rose before mumbling, "What time is it?"
"We're in the TARDIS. It's any time you want it to be. Are we going to Shakespearean England or not?"
"Oh. Yeah. You mind leaving so I can get dressed?" asked the Doctor, sitting up and looking slightly more alert.
"Sure. Sorry. Me and Martha'll get ready."
"Don't wear anything with a big skirt," commented the Doctor. "At some point we'll probably be running."
"Fair enough," replied Rose, remembering vaguely that she was still in her nightie. "See you in a bit."
"A bit" proved to be about twenty minutes, long enough for Rose to get into something slightly more suitable.
"Right then, are we ready to go?" asked the Doctor, sticking his head into the kitchen. "If you are that's great, because I'm about to start up the TARDIS and it's going to get a bit bumpy down here. And when I say 'a bit', I mean 'a lot', so I'd recommend coming up to the control room instead."
"Took you long enough," muttered Rose, putting her book on the kitchen table. "Martha, you good to go?"
"Great!" said Martha excitedly from where she was rooting through the Doctor's fridge, and then, "Are you aware that something in your refrigerator is shedding, Doctor?"
"Oh, that would be the eggs I bought on Dextrus-1. You might want to steer clear of those for a bit, because if touched they can be highly toxic to humans. They make an amazing sandwich with bananas, though." The Doctor hurried to the fridge and gently pushed Martha aside, shutting the door. "So I'll see you two up top, then." And then he hurried away.
Martha uttered an amused laugh. "He does work at top speed, doesn't he?"
"You get used to it," replied Rose with a bit of a silly smile on her face.
"But how do you travel in time?" asked Martha as the TARDIS bucked around, clinging desperately to the console. "What makes it go?"
"Oh, let's take the fun and mystery out of everything. Martha, you don't want to know. It just does. Hold on tight." The Doctor pushed one last button, and the TARDIS came to a stuttering halt that threw Martha onto the floor.
Rose, who had also been flung backward, called over, "You all right?"
"Never been better," called back Martha sarcastically, but she had a bit of a grin on her face as she got back up. "Blimey, Doctor, d'you have to pass a test to fly this thing?"
"Yes, and I failed it," replied the Doctor. "Now, make the most of it. I promised you one trip, and one trip only. (Here Martha and Rose exchanged a significant look.) Outside this door, brave new world."
"Where are we?" asked Martha.
Rose opened her mouth to answer, but the Doctor leaned down to pull her off the floor and whispered "Let it be a surprise" before turning back to Martha and saying, "Take a look. After you."
Martha stepped out into Shakespearean England, the Doctor and Rose close behind. "Oh, you are kidding me," she gasped. "You are so kidding me. Oh, my God, we did it. We traveled in time. Where are we? No, sorry. I've got to get used to this whole new language. When are we?"
"Mind out," replied the Doctor, pulling Martha back as something was poured out a window. "Somewhere before the invention of the toilet, apparently. Sorry about that."
"I've seen worse. I've worked the late night shift A+E." Martha stepped gingerly around the puddle on the street, and the Doctor took Rose's arm a little hesitantly. She let him. "But are we safe? I mean, can we move around and stuff?"
"Why couldn't we?" replied Rose.
"It's like in the films. You step on a butterfly, you change the future of the human race."
"Tell you what then, don't step on any butterflies," the Doctor said. "What have butterflies ever done to you?"
"What if, I don't know, what if I kill my grandfather?" asked Martha nervously.
"D'you plan to?" replied Rose.
"No."
"Well, then," said the Doctor cheerfully.
"Are you two in sync or something?" asked Martha, evidently amused.
"Pretty much," said Rose happily.
"And this is London?"
"I think so," replied the Doctor. "Round about 1599."
"Course, you wouldn't know for certain, seeing as last time you took us to see Elvis we ended up in London for the Coronation and I lost my face," mumbled Rose. The Doctor heard her and mumbled back something about how it was harder than it looked to properly fly a TARDIS.
"Oh, but hold on," Martha said worriedly. "Am I all right? I'm not going to get carted off as a slave, am I?"
"Why would they do that?" asked the Doctor bemusedly. Rose rolled her eyes.
"Not exactly white, in case you haven't noticed," said Martha pointedly.
"I'm not even human. Just walk about like you own the place. Works for me. Besides, you'd be surprised. Elizabethan England, not so different from your time. Look over there. They've got recycling, water cooler moment..."
"And the earth will be consumed by flame!" shouted a preacher standing by a church.
"Global warming," the Doctor added on. "Oh, yes, and entertainment. Popular entertainment for the masses. If I'm right, we're just down the river by Southwark, right next to-" He towed Rose around the corner, Martha following and looking slightly amused at Rose's annoyed expression. "Oh, yes, the Globe Theatre! Brand new. Just opened. Through, strictly speaking, it's not a globe, it's a tetradecagon. Fourteen sides. Containing the man himself."
"Whoa, you don't mean," gasped Martha, her eyes widening dramatically. Rose giggled. "Is Shakespeare in there?"
"Oh yes. Miss Jones, Miss Tyler, will you accompany me to the theatre?"
"Mister Smith, I will!" replied Martha excitedly.
"When you get home, you can tell everyone you've seen Shakespeare," laughed the Doctor.
"Bet she'd get sectioned," snorted Rose.
Question: Favorite episode from Series Three?
-The Eclectic Bookworm
