Up In the Clouds
Donna had been right, traveling by zeppelin was a blast. They'd floated across the North Sea easy as a cloud, first to Copenhagen, then north to Oslo, arriving about eight hours after they lifted off from the George Harrison Memorial Zeppelin Terminal in north London. The hundred-odd passengers had leisurely milled between the various spacious, comfortable public rooms on the airship's two decks, whiling away the hours nibbling the light lunch in the dining room, sipping cocktails in the lounge, and watching the landscape melt away far below them through the tilted windows. Mike announced grandly that he'd travel by airship any day, shuddering again at the memory of the crowded, break-dancing tin can he'd endured the other direction. Turbulence simply was not a factor in zeppelin travel.
Landing in Oslo that evening, they decided naturally to spend the night in a hotel before continuing on to Bergen by train the next day. They took a taxi down to the city center, paying the friendly cabbie extra to give them an hour-long tour, before dropping them at a tourist hotel overlooking the Oslofjord waterside.
They took a pair of adjoining rooms, unlocking the door between them but leaving it closed for privacy as they changed clothes, then went downstairs for a delicious meal of Norwegian sausages and fish cakes in the attached restaurant. The trio dawdled over the cheese and wine 'afters' for over an hour, chatting, laughing, and enjoying the company, before retiring – the women taking one room and Mike the other.
Mike tossed and turned for a couple of hours, still not settled into any kind of regular sleep schedule. He needed much more sleep than he had before as a full Time Lord, but not, it seemed, as much as a "normal" human. Finally, he gave up, and put his clothes back on, thinking he'd go for a walk along the well-lit nighttime waterfront. He slipped out the door into the hall – and met Rose, just coming back in from her own restless wandering.
"Couldn't sleep?" he asked, smiling.
"No. I...." The mask she'd worn all day suddenly slipped, and she put a hand to her mouth, pressing her knuckles against her lips to keep from sobbing.
Mike reacted without thinking, reaching out and gathering her close. She wrapped her arms around his waist like she'd done that morning, burying her face in his shoulder, and simply held on for a few minutes, till she'd gotten herself under control again.
She leaned back, finally, and gave him a small, wistful smile. He cupped his hand on her cheek – and leaned forward without thinking and kissed her, tenderly.
She hesitated, just for a moment, and then leaned into the kiss, accepting. Her arms tightened around him, her hands moving up his spine (sending a shiver of excitement pinging up into his skull) and onto his shoulders. He deepened the kiss, then, his hand slipping softly down her neck and onto her back in a slow caress. For several long minutes they clung together in the hallway, tasting each other, as the slow tide of passion began rising.
When she moaned, low in her throat, he reached around and pushed his not-yet-latched door back open, drawing her in and closing it behind her, then pinning her against it. She brought her arms in for a brief moment and then wrapped them higher, around his neck, returning his renewed kisses with fire.
Mike's hands suddenly developed minds of their own, and they wanted skin – soft, warm, inviting skin – and they tore through leather and cloth at her waist to reach it. Her back arched of its own accord at his touch, recognizing how deeply she'd longed for the contact. His hands then slowly, caressingly slipped around to the front and up to find their twin goals, then his lips moved down to meet them. She moaned again, her head dropping back, and suddenly raised one leg and wrapped it around him. He reached back around and picked her up, turning with her and falling onto the bed, two steps away. They began tearing at each other's clothes, suddenly desperate to have nothing at all between them, and when there wasn't, she pulled him almost roughly on top of her, and he arched his back and plunged in, diving into paradise.
Some time later, in an act of sheer willpower, he ignored the name she moaned as she slipped over the edge, promising himself ruthlessly that before long, it would be his own name on her lips.
***
After that, Rose felt as though she were slowly waking up from a long, frozen nightmare. She smiled a little more often, a little more easily, and found herself watching Mike sometimes, trying to see who he really was in himself, rather than avoiding his too-familiar brown eyes. There were differences; she could see Donna's influence at times. Even the times (admittedly the vast majority) when he acted just like the Doctor, it didn't seem quite so searingly hard to take. They didn't repeat their lovemaking, content to let things proceed at a slower pace, the knowledge that it was possibly – probably – there in their future acting like the slightest trace of honey, making their present days just that bit sweeter.
They were careful never to make Donna feel like a third wheel, and she never did, though she was aware at some dim periphery of their impending couple-ness. For the moment, they were simply three good friends out on holiday, enjoying the sights and tastes of the journey back to London.
They elected to drive all the way back to England, stopping for a couple of days each in Copenhagen and Amsterdam (which was admittedly out of the way, but they all wanted to see it), and taking little side trips whenever something caught their fancy. At last, they rode the car ferry at Calais, just so they could see the famous white cliffs of Dover from the sea. "Funny how you can live all your life within easy reach of something spectacular, and yet never see it for yourself," commented Donna. They spent a last night in a small hotel in Dover, overlooking the port, before turning the jeep at last into the drive at the Tyler mansion one morning, some two weeks after they left.
The front door opened as they were piling out, and little Tony came barreling out to greet his sister, Jackie and then Pete trailing behind. "Wose!!!" She scooped him up and twirled him around and around, laughing. He'd been almost the only truly bright spot in her life for the past three years, and it had been hard to think she was leaving him forever, each time she'd stepped into the field of the reality cannon.
After a few minutes of greetings and introductions, and brief explanations, Pete turned to Mike, who he'd been surreptitiously watching. "Mike? Can I have a word with you in private?" He led the younger man over towards the side of the house, out of earshot of the ladies, who continued chattering and playing with Tony.
"I need to ask you a couple of extremely nosy questions, and I need you to tell me the honest truth. I promise, I do have good reason for asking, beyond just looking out for my little girl – and she is that, make no mistake."
"All right, ask."
"The other day, when you came here looking for the Doctor, how long had you been in Rose's company?"
Mike thought back. "Most of the day. She picked me up at the airport that morning."
"What about the Doctor? You didn't see him?"
"He wasn't here, remember?"
"No, I mean earlier."
Mike stared at him for a moment. "What are you getting at, Pete?"
Pete stared back, considering, then, "I dropped the Doctor off at Rose's hotel about three-thirty that afternoon, to talk to her, to try to make up with her. Are you saying he never made it?"
Mike shook his head, bewildered. "She wasn't there just then, she'd gone out to get Donna. I took a shower, then fell asleep." He stopped suddenly, the click of a door closing softly echoing in his memory. "Oh, shit," he said slowly, then looked back at Pete. "I think he may have seen me there." A beat. "Didn't he ever come back?"
"Nope. He's still – missing." Pete took a deep breath. "OK, second question. Are you and Rose together?"
Mike tilted his head back and sucked in a deep breath, then blew it out as he turned and looked away. He stared at the bushes for a long moment, then turned back to Pete. "You have no idea how badly I want to say yes. But you asked for the truth. And the truth is – no. Not yet. We could be, given time, but we aren't yet." He searched Pete's eyes. "You know where he is, don't you?"
"Yes, I know where he is. He's in jail."
