Day Nine
"So, where are we going next?" The young, blonde girl asked with enthusiasm, typical to those who had recently joined the Doctor in his travels. The man clad in a leather jacket didn't respond, instead he continued punching in coordinates and twisting knobs on the TARDIS console.
Rose walked up behind him, tilting her head so her hair fell over one shoulder and biting her lip.
"I said, where are we going?"
"Why don't you take a look for yourself?" The Doctor straightened up and nodded his head towards the door. "You'll want a coat." Smiling, Rose ran towards the door (grabbing a coat that lay discarded on the floor from their last adventure) and flung it open. The Doctor smiled to himself as he heard an audible intake of breath.
"In the year 5184, the human race truly surpassed itself," the Doctor commented, walking across the room to stand by Rose.
"You can say that again."
"It's Christmas Eve out there."
"Can we go outside and look around?" she asked, in a voice of true awe.
"No, I brought you here to stand in the doorway." Rose rolled her eyes and stepped outside regardless of her friend's sarcasm.
The village square looked as though all the stars in the sky had descended and landed on top of the roofs. Lights in all colours blazed everywhere. Somewhere a choir was singing; the chords of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen filled the air. It was even snowing picturesquely, dusting the ground with a white film. It was Christmas, raised to the 100th degree.
Rose wrapped her pink coat more tightly around her and made her way down the street, with the Doctor trailing along behind, lost in his own thoughts.
It was so long, so long now that he'd been travelling on his own. So many years, filled with so many horrors. But here he was now. Christmas. With her, the young woman blinking in the sunlight of a new world she was seeing for the first time. Through her, he could see it again too. The beauty, the wonder of it all. She was the ointment for his battle scars, not that she could ever know that, of course.
"Doctor," Rose grabbed his hand and pulled him with all the force she had towards a particular shop that rather looked like a candy cane had exploded on the exterior.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." The café had a total of one option: Cocoa. The Doctor and Rose both ordered and sat in one of the shockingly red booths.
"What is this place?" Asked Rose, sipping from the mug and immediately recoiling, due probably, to the heat of the beverage.
"I told you, 5184. This city was transformed into a real winter wonderland, the cooperation it took was monumental, still it was worth it. This year is generally considered as the best Christmas ever. Well, apart from the original that is."
"Very funny."
"I mean it, I was there."
"900 years, is there anywhere you haven't been?"
"Well, I never came here before now. Can check that one off the list."
"The best Christmas ever? How could you resist that? If I had a time machine, I think I'd make every day Christmas."
"Don't you think that would spoil it?"
"No," said Rose, laughing at the very idea.
"Alright then," said the Doctor, drinking out of his own mug. Rose leaned back, brushing her bleached hair behind her ears.
"My mum makes the best Christmas dinner. You should join us sometime."
"Ah, no."
"Come on, it'd be great."
"I told you I don't do families. And anyways I don't think your mum would want me there. Have you forgotten already? She hates me."
"She doesn't hate you."
"She slapped me, or is that just her way of saying hello?"
"Shut up," she paused, "What about you, on your planet, did you have any holidays?"
"No." The answer said, very clearly, "I don't want to talk about it." Nevertheless, Rose remained undeterred.
"You celebrate Christmas though, tell me about that then."
"Blimey, you're a nosy one aren't you?" Rose simply sipped her cocoa and waited for a response. "Alright," the Doctor said, sounding half annoyed and half flattered. "I've resolved a feud between neighbours, stopped an alien invasion, investigated a murder and lost a game of chess."
"All in one day?"
"No, lots of different days." Rose laughed at his exasperated voice. "In all honesty," he continued, "I was coerced into all of that, I wasn't really fond of the holiday up until recently."
"So this is a new experience for you?"
"I suppose you could say that, yes." She grinned, for some reason he couldn't shake the thought that if the holiday of Christmas could be embodied, she would look exactly Rose.
A small waiter dressed head to toe in Christmas colours and donning a moustache that would rival that of Hercule Poirot.
"Your bill, Sir," he said handing a slip of paper to the Doctor. The Doctor looked at it as though it were a repulsive alien. He turned to Rose,
"Um, have you got any money?"
"No," she said in a voice that was very clearly irked.
"Well," he said addressing the waiter, "It appears that I am, temporarily broke. Will an IOU do?"
"No," the man remained stoically un-amused. The Doctor turned to Rose,
"Run." The couple stood and pushed through the crowds of people towards the exit while the angry waiter chased after them yelling obscenities.
Finally, they burst through the exit and continued running off through the streets.
