While Rose was happy to be as physically close with this Doctor as she was with her future one, she did have to convince him to leave the bedroom during her visit for at least a little while. Peri was liable to get bored if they didn't do anything for a few days, and she really did want to get to know this Doctor on more than a physical level.
Instead of risking being arrested again, the Doctor took them to several public gardens. It meant that there were more people around, but it was much safer. In fact, Peri felt so comfortable with their visit that she didn't mind when the Doctor took Rose away to a restaurant for dinner, leaving her on her own.
The Doctor had insisted that Rose dress formally for the occasion and he even changed into a plain black and white tuxedo for the sake of the dress code at the restaurant. She found a dark blue evening gown, covered with glittering crystals that made it look like she was wearing the night sky. Rose made sure to wear flats, just in case they had to run for some reason and met him in the console room as soon as she finished curling her hair, leaving it down in large waves.
"Absolutely stunning," the Doctor said when he saw her.
Rose smiled at the compliment and took his arm as he escorted her out on their date.
The venue was filled with various species of aliens, all dressed to the nines, dining and dancing the night away. Dinner was assorted plates of finger foods that they were expected to share and feed to each other as part of the whole experience. The Doctor taught her a few of the common dances and requested a waltz for them as well, because he knew she enjoyed it. They managed to get through the evening without any emergencies demanding their attention and were back in the TARDIS around the time that Peri was heading to bed herself. They bid her goodnight and Rose went to get ready for bed.
The Doctor wasn't tired, of course, but wanted to be with Rose while she was here, so brought himself a few books to read while in bed with her for the night. One of them was another book about human sex, but most of them actually covered human weddings, wanting to know how to include some of her traditions as well.
The next day, the Doctor brought his companions to a museum. Peri rolled her eyes, knowing full well what this was all about, as he'd brought her somewhere similar before. Rose was a bit confused though. Her Doctors never showed any interest in this sort of thing. When he started telling her about his role in just about every exhibit, or how wrong the inscriptions were, she caught on. He was showing off.
When Rose spotted something familiar to her, however, she knew just how to turn the tables on him. A large, green arm lay in one of the glass boxes, labelled as having been excavated from a mysterious bunker in Utah that was filled with cement.
"That can't be right," he mumbled.
"Ah, you see, here we have the arm of a member of the Slitheen family, originating on Raxacoricofallapatorius. In the year 2006, they managed to take over 10 Downing Street in London, in an effort to have all of the planet's nuclear weapons destroy the planet so that they could sell it off as radioactive fuel. They were stopped by the Doctor, Rose, Harriet Jones, and Mickey Smith when they used a missile to blow up 10 Downing Street," she told him, in full tour guide mode.
"Well," he said, suitably impressed. "That sounds like quite an adventure."
"What are we doing here?" she asked.
"It is a bit gratuitous isn't it? Alright, enough flaunting my own arrogance. Let's go do something fun," he admitted and they went to find Peri.
The group ended up back in London for some chips, where they participated in a pub quiz that gave them all a chance to show off their knowledge a bit. They had a marvellous time before retiring for the night.
Rose and the Doctor were back in the library, reading. It had been an exciting few days, but Rose knew it was time to keep going the next day. She moved to curl up in his lap, wanting to enjoy this time as much as she could.
"You're leaving in the morning, aren't you?" he asked sadly.
"I think I should," she answered. "I've had a wonderful visit, but I'm not meant to stay for too long."
"I know. You just make me so happy, I never want you to leave," he told her, squeezing her tightly.
"We'll have forever, Doctor. I promise," she assured him.
The next morning, after finishing the breakfast that the Doctor had prepared, Rose said goodbye to Peri and got ready to leave. The Doctor sent the necessary message to the future Doctor, then moved to face Rose and complete the next part of their Bond. He decided that he wanted to be kissing her while doing this, adding to the intimacy of it all.
When they both emerged from their telepathic connection, the pinstripe wearing Doctor was standing by the doors. He smiled at the sight. It probably should have made him jealous, but he knew that this was important in creating a life with her that would last for centuries. The Bond that he wanted with her wasn't possible without all of this.
Back in their own TARDIS, Rose could see that the Doctor was debating something about their next coordinates.
"What is it, Doctor? Is something wrong?" she asked.
"No. No, nothing's wrong. I'm just trying to decide on the best time in my seventh life to send you," he told her. "Really only one choice, I suppose."
He started setting up their flight and moved around the console as needed to keep them on course.
"You still don't remember anything that's happened so far?" she wondered.
"Not a thing, although I gather from the bits that I've seen that things have become, erm, a bit intimate," he replied.
Rose smirked. "A bit yeah. It's been, interesting to say the least. It might not be something that you want to tell me about, but I was just wondering something. Your fifth self didn't know how to do anything physical, but I caught you reading up on it. I know you had some experience that you remembered before we got together now. Were your other relationships serious?"
"They were complicated. Nothing like what we have. I don't think I ever would have suggested a Bond with anyone else. I can't say that my life has been completely innocent, Rose. You know me better than that. But don't doubt that you are the most important to me," he assured her.
They had landed and Rose moved to give him a deep kiss before going out the doors. The passionate days with the rainbow Doctor had been fun, but she missed the sweet intimacy that she shared with her usual Doctor. The kiss was slow, their tongues twisting around each other's for several long minutes before Rose needed to breathe. He pressed his forehead against hers for a moment before taking her hand to lead her out to the other TARDIS.
The Doctor knocked on the door, but didn't seem surprised when no one answered it. He sighed and took out his key to unlock the door himself. Up until now, all of the console rooms had been quite similar. They were usually white, with a small, hexagonal console in the middle of the room, and occasionally a bit of furniture. This was completely different. It felt as though they had entered an old library. The space was filled with wooden bookshelves and drawers, there were various side tables, knicknacks, and a few persian rugs on the floor. Off to one side, there were huge metal struts, surrounding what appeared to be the console, but the controls looked more steampunk than futuristic.
The only person in the room, was a dark haired man, in a beige suit who sat in a leather armchair reading. He seemed to be pretending that he hadn't noticed their arrival or didn't care, but it was obvious that he just seemed annoyed at having someone able to enter his TARDIS without his permission.
"Sorry to interrupt," the older Doctor said. "Hello, Doctor. I am your tenth incarnation, and have come to introduce you to-"
"Rose Marion Tyler," the other Doctor interrupted, suddenly looking at Rose in deep thought.
"How did?" she gasped.
"We're getting close now. Our Bond is nearly complete and he can feel it now," the pinstriped Doctor told her.
"Hmm, curious," the younger Doctor commented, his fingers steepled in front of his face.
"Look, are you going to be like this the whole time? Rose is liable to change her mind if you keep at it," he shouted.
"Sorry. Of course, I'll be the perfect host," he replied, finally standing up from his chair. "Nothing to worry about, Doctor."
Rose noted that he was quite a bit shorter than most of the other Doctors, except perhaps the second one. He wore a jumper covered in red question marks under his jacket and had a paisley scarf tucked under the lapels.
"We'll be fine, love. I'll see you soon, yeah?" Rose assured her pinstriped Doctor before he left. Once they were alone, she turned back to this new incarnation and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Let's have some tea while we talk, Rose."
He prepared a fresh pot of tea and brought some cakes to the sitting area in the console room from the kitchen. He settled back in his chair, while she sat, alone, on the sofa across from him. Rose got the sense that her Doctor knew he might be like this before dropping her off and that was why he had been considering their coordinates so carefully.
"I've been travelling alone," he began.
"You shouldn't do that," she told him.
"And why would you say that?" he wondered.
"Because you deal with a lot in your travels and you tend to blame yourself when things go wrong. Having someone else around means they can remind you of all the good that you've done and reassure you that you made a good choice," she explained. Rose was sure that he knew travelling alone wasn't a good idea either, but he had been curious about her reasoning. "I told you on my first visit, you taught me a better way of living. You taught me to say no, make a stand, and do something to help when no one else will. And then you told me to never question that."
"Quite right," he agreed. "And I have been wallowing in guilt, I suppose. I've not been the nicest person this time around."
"If what you said about my future Doctor is true, that all your previous personalities are buried in there somewhere, making up who you are now, then you can be a nice person. You have to choose to be," she argued.
"You truly are brilliant, Rose," he told her and finally moved to sit beside her on the sofa. He held up his arm and she quickly moved to snuggle beneath it. "In that case, I've chosen to be a manipulative bastard in this form. That almost makes it worse, really. The fact that I can't blame it on the regeneration, only my own poor decisions."
"We can't change what's been done, even with a time machine. But you can choose to be better from now on," she told him. "Though I think it probably wasn't as bad as you think it was."
"You see me on my best behaviour. While I try to prove myself worthy of your light," he argued.
"Doctor, when I first met you, you'd just been through a lot. I don't think I can tell you about it, even if you will forget this later, but you were so broken. You thought you would destroy anything you touched. But together we ran, and we helped people, and we made a difference for good. I've seen the dark side of you Doctor. I fell in love with that first. Let me help you," she said.
"You and your boundless compassion. You deserve perfection, but are drawn to those that need you most. I'll never be worthy of you, Rose. You would be better off giving up on me."
"Stop it. I'm not going anywhere," she snapped harshly. "Take me dancing, Doctor."
"What?"
"I'm going to go get changed and I want you to take me dancing somewhere. Show me something impressive."
Rose carried her suitcase with her to the hallway and placed a hand on the wall to ask the TARDIS where their room was. A light appeared over a nearby door to direct her and Rose entered the familiar space. Upon opening the wardrobe, the TARDIS had chosen a dress for her to wear and even provided matching shoes. Based on the heels, she presumed that the ship wasn't planning to bring them somewhere with any trouble, probably feeling that the Doctor himself was enough trouble for the moment.
When she returned to the console room, the Doctor had piloted them somewhere. He was still at the controls and didn't turn to look at her even though she knew that he had heard her. Rose sighed, knowing that this wasn't going to be easy, but the Doctor needed her and she was used to that more than what had been happening on this journey.
"Ready to go, then?" he asked, heading toward the doors.
"Yes, Doctor," she said moving to grasp his arm even if he didn't offer it.
He led her out of the TARDIS and towards a huge castle. He presented an invitation to the man at the door, and Rose made a mental note to ask him how long he had been waiting to use it. There was a ball going on. The people looked human, but something about the decor told Rose that this wasn't Earth.
The Doctor directed her to which of the foods were safe for her to eat, but since he didn't seem interested in engaging her in conversation, Rose spoke with the people around them instead. She tried to involve him in the conversation, used to travelling with a broody Doctor. She hadn't had to do this since her Doctor regenerated, but the first months with her leather Doctor had been very much like this. When they finished eating, he held out his hand and she was happy when he walked her over to the dance floor. He took her into a formal waltz position and finally looked into her eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Have you decided to stop being a bastard yet?" she asked. "It's your choice, remember?"
"Yes. If you're going to be stubborn enough not to leave, the least I can do is treat you the way you deserve. I'm sorry."
"You're forgiven. What will we do for fun tomorrow, love?" she asked, determined to fix him at least a little before she left.
