Chapter Ten— Dating

The next few hours passed incredibly slowly for the Doctor. He didn't know how humans could stand it, living one minute after another, waiting for something to happen. He was tempted to take the TARDIS and jump ahead twelve hours, just to shorten the waiting time before he could see Rose, but he didn't want to overshoot and have it accidentally be twelve months again.

So instead he tried to keep himself busy. He invented one hundred fifty-six new settings on his sonic. He dismantled and rebuilt four separate systems in the console, polished the time rotor, repaired a squeaky spring under the jump seat, showered, shaved and found a new shirt and tie in the wardrobe.

And it was still only 7:00 am.

He considered going out and taking a walk, but he couldn't risk Rose seeing him wandering around the Powell Estate. And he really couldn't risk her seeing him emerge from the TARDIS. He was sure she wasn't ready to deal with the shock of real aliens and a real alien spaceship, despite her joking about Star Trek the previous night. The thought of her losing any more memory than she already had sent a chill down his spine.

Finally, putting aside his worries and ignoring the protests of the TARDIS, he climbed back under the console and dismantled and rebuilt the navigational control circuits, the randomizer, and the dematerialization circuit, while he waited until he could see Rose again.

Rose awoke with a start to someone shaking her foot. She squinted at the brightness of the room and saw someone sitting on the foot of her bed.

"God, Shareen, what the hell are you doin'?" she asked irritably, yawning and stretching.

"What does it look like I'm doin'? I'm tryin' to wake you up."

"Okay, okay, I'm up, I'm up," Rose said, rising just enough to lean on her elbows. "What're you doin' here so early anyway?"

"Rose, it's 12:00. And I came to drop off your clothes and find out all about the bloke you picked up at the club."

"I didn't pick him up," Rose protested, yawning again.

"Okay, so he picked you up," Shareen responded. "Either way, what happened?"

"Nothin'," Rose said. "We went out for chips."

"Chips," Shareen said disbelievingly. "You expect me to believe all you did is go out for chips. Jackie says you didn't get home till one in the morning. Where'd you go, Reading?"

"What are you, my mother now?"

"No, cos your mum would scold you. I just want all the juicy details," Shareen smirked.

"There are no juicy details to be had, Shareen. We danced, we went for chips, he walked me home. End of story."

"That's it? That's it?" she said disbelievingly. "I came all the way over here for 'we went for chips and he walked me home'?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Shareen, you live, what, three blocks away?"

"'S not the point." Shareen sat on the foot of the bed and stared at Rose. "There's more, isn't there? I know you. Well, you might as well tell me now, because you know I'm just gonna get it out of you anyway."

Rose stared at her friend, considering. "Alright," she said, trying to hide a grin. "He might have, uh, kissed me."

Shareen shook her finger at Rose. "I knew it! I knew it! I knew you were holdin' out on me. But from the expression on your face, it must have been some kiss."

Rose grinned. "Oh, yeah."

"So, are you gonna see him again?" Shareen's eyes lit up. "You are, aren't you. Well, it's about bloody time. Jimmy was forever ago, the wanker, and I don't even count Mickey. I don't know if I should even count the bloke you were travelin' with since you don't even remember him. When are you gonna see him?"

"Tonight," Rose grinned.

Her mobile started to ring, vibrating enough that it threatened to fall off the nightstand, and they both lunged for it. Shareen got there first and answered it.

"Hello? This is Shareen." She danced out of the way while Rose tried to grab the phone. "No, you don't have the wrong number. Yeah, Rose's right here. Is this the bloke from the club? Rose says you're a bloody good…"

"Shareen!" Rose hissed and she fairly tackled her friend to the floor, grabbing her mobile back in the process. "Hello?"

"Hello, Rose?" the Doctor said in her ear.

"Yeah, it's me. Sorry about that. Friend of mine thought she'd help me out by answering the phone for me." At that, Rose glared at Shareen, kicked her in the leg and then sat back down on her bed.

"Well, I was just wondering if you were free this afternoon. I thought we could go downtown and see some of the sights."

"Okay, sure, sounds great. When?"

"Maybe in about an hour?"

"An hour?" Rose fairly squeaked.

"Well, we could make it later if you want," he said.

"Oh, no, an hour's fine. You know where I live. It's flat number 48. I'll see you then." She rang off and sat there for a moment in shock. "He's coming over early." She grinned.

"Are you goin' dressed like that?" Shareen asked pointedly.

Rose glanced down at herself and gasped. "I've got to get ready!" she said after noticing she was still in a vest and shorts. "Go home, Shareen."

"Fine, be that way," her friend answered, walking to the bedroom door. "But I'm going to expect a full report the next time I see you."

"Get out!" Rose yelled and threw a pillow across the room at the retreating back of her friend.

Jackie Tyler sat in the kitchen of her flat, nursing a cup of tea and hoping she hadn't made a mistake. To call that man, to actually invite him back into his daughter's life, was frightening to her. And that is exactly what she had done, invited him back. No, she had actually ordered him to come back. What had she been thinking? What on Earth had possessed her? No, what in outer space had possessed her to actually tell him to come back and risk Rose leaving with him again? With her memories gone, maybe she could eventually have been happy here on the Estate.

What had she done?

Rose burst into the kitchen and put a couple of slices of bread in the toaster. "Mornin', Mum."

"Mornin', Sweetheart," she replied automatically, and then glanced at the clock. "Well, not mornin', actually."

"Oh, Mum, don't start." She buttered her toast, poured herself a cup of tea from her mother's never-ending pot, and sat down opposite her.

"I saw Shareen," Jackie said. "She said you met someone at the club last night."

"Yeah," Rose replied. She couldn't stop a grin from spreading across her face. "Uh, we're going out today. He's gonna pick me up in just a little bit."

As Rose ate her breakfast, Jackie stared at her daughter in concern, wondering again if she had made the right decision in asking the Doctor to come back. On the one hand, Rose looked happier than she had since the Doctor had brought her home after losing her memories. But on the other hand, Rose had been in so much danger with him while she had been traveling with him. He had told her himself more than once that he couldn't keep Rose safe. That was why he had brought her home in the first place. And with Rose's memories of him gone, Jackie felt like she finally had her daughter back. But this wasn't about what was best for her. This was about what was best for Rose.

If she only knew what that was.

There was a knock on the door, and Rose jumped up. "That's him."

"Rose," Jackie said, pursing her lips, "just… be careful."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Mum, I'm a big girl now," she replied.

"Yeah, I know, but a mother worries."

"You don't have to worry," she said, kissing her mother's cheek. "I won't do anything stupid. And he's really nice." She heard him knock at the door again. "Got to go."

As Rose opened the door to let the Doctor in, Jackie stood in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"Yep." And as Rose walked out the door, she didn't see the Doctor glance at her mother, or her mother watch them leave, a serious expression on her face.

Since she was not scheduled to work for the next few days, the Doctor took Rose on a whirlwind tour of London: museums, the Palace, Piccadilly, the Eye, even Downing Street. He pulled her from one place to the next, seeming to have the same boundless energy that her cousins had when they had had too many sweets. She was continually amazed that he seemed to know, as well as be interested in, the history of everything around them, from the architecture of the buildings to the construction of the sewers and everything in between. Everywhere they went, he inundated her with more facts than she could ever remember, talking the whole time they were together. In fact, most of the time she could hardly get a word in edgewise. Still, he was way more interesting than any of the teachers she had ever had, and she didn't mind listening to him. Even when she didn't understand some of the things he was talking about, she liked listening to the sound of his voice. Not only did he have a nice voice, for some reason it was comforting, almost soothing. For some reason, it almost reminded her of home.

To her surprise, he always seemed to wear a brown pinstriped suit with some sort of an Oxford shirt, a coordinating tie and, oddly, trainers. She began to wonder if he owned anything else, but the outfit seemed to suit him, he looked very handsome in it actually, so she didn't remark on it.

Sometime on Sunday, sitting in a chip shop downtown, Rose told him about her memory loss.

"And you can't remember anything from the past three years?" he asked.

"No, nothin'," she replied. She took a deep breath. "I hope you don't think I'm mad."

He shook his head. "Having amnesia doesn't make you insane, Rose. It just means you can't remember some things."

"Mum said I was examined by the best doctor in the world," she said. "I don't remember that either, and I can't imagine how that could even be true with NHS. Anyway, according to her, he couldn't do anything to bring back my memories and evidently he tried a bunch of things." She looked away for a moment. "I feel so stupid."

"Oh, don't feel like that, Rose. I think you're brilliant."

She rolled her eyes. "You obviously don't know me very well. I don't have any A-levels, and I work in a takeaway."

"That doesn't mean you're not brilliant," he said seriously. "That just means you don't have any A-levels and you work in a takeaway." Then he grinned. "And I ought to know. I'm brilliant myself, a genius actually, and it takes one to know one. In fact," he said, leaning forward as if imparting a great secret, "I think you could actually save the world."

Crossing her arms, she sat back and stared at him, considering. "Y'know, I think I've changed my mind."

"Yeah?"

"Yep," she said, nodding vigorously. "You're the mad one."