Chapter 9
The Doctor put his empty champagne flute on the tray of a passing waiter, somehow managing to snag three new ones at the same time without the waiter slowing down, or even appearing to notice. He handed a glass each to Rose and Martha, then took a sip from his own.
"Soooo," he said, dragging out the syllable. "How long have you been a doctor?"
"Oh, I just finished my residency last year," she responded after taking a sip from her glass. "I've been in private practice ever since. I spend one day a week in the free clinics, but the rest of my time I see my own patients."
"And you see Jackie?" he asked. "That's how you two know each other?"
"Yes," answered Rose, probably a bit too quickly. "We met last week when I took Mum to see her. As soon as I knew she wanted to come tonight, I invited her and her fiancé. Where is he, by the way?"
"Tom wandered off somewhere that way." Martha gestured vaguely at the rest of the room with her free hand. "He said he was headed to the bar, but I think he just wants to check out that singer, Sherí something or other. You know, the one with the blonde hair and the big…"
"Yes, I know," Rose interjected, strongly suspecting that this wasn't Martha's first glass of champagne. "So, are you two having a good time?"
"Oh, yes," Martha said, her face lighting up. "This has been fantastic. Thank you so much for inviting us."
"Thank you so much for coming," Rose said gratefully. "These things are usually filled with people I don't know. It's nice to see a friendly face."
"I'd go better find Tom and pry him away from that girl before he makes a complete and utter fool of himself," Martha said, laughing. "Sometimes he can be such a little fanboy."
"Just make sure you don't leave before I introduce you to Harriet Jones."
"The President?" Martha's eyes widened and she grinned. "No way. Absolutely. Wouldn't miss it."
As she wandered off, slightly unsteadily because of her 5 inch heels, probably, in the general direction of the pop star, the Doctor turned to Rose and grinned.
"Martha Jones," he said, shaking his head. "It's almost as if our lives are entangled with hers in both universes. Do you know any other parallels of my previous companions?"
"Not sure," she responded, raising an eyebrow. "I don't know Sarah Jane, and of course Jack isn't here. And we were never able to find a parallel Donna in any universe. But you know I don't know who any of your other companions were," she said pointedly. "You didn't even mention Sarah Jane until we ran into her."
He winced. That had been an unspoken sore spot between them for weeks after seeing her. And it didn't help that the business with Reinette had happened right after that. They had worked through both of those situations eventually, thankfully rather quickly he had thought at the time, but evidently it wasn't completely over. Or at least that's what he thought until Rose gave him a mischievous grin and kissed him, wiping the lipstick off afterwards with her thumb.
"I don't care who you traveled with before," she whispered in his ear, "as long as you finish with me."
The Doctor's eyes widened at the blatant innuendo. He swallowed nervously before a small smirk crossed his lips. They were together now, in ways they hadn't been while they had been traveling, but he still wasn't completely used to it. Grateful for it, yes, but not completely used to it.
And they weren't that together. Yet.
But soon. Hopefully very, very soon.
She grinned at him, the flirtatious grin she had always saved for him, tongue just barely caught between her teeth. He realized he was grinning back. His was a little lopsided and slightly mimicked hers in that the tip of his tongue touched his teeth as well. It was the same grin that she had always called goofy, but he knew she loved it just the same.
A commotion at the door of the ballroom made them turn in response. A half dozen men and women dressed in black suits entered the room and began to scan it. It was clear from the earpods in their ears as well as the guns holstered on their hips that they were a security detail of some kind. After a moment one of the men signaled to someone in the hall and an older woman wearing an unfortunately unflattering formal mauve dress entered, surrounded by several other security personnel. From where the Doctor and Rose were standing, it was difficult to make out who the woman was.
"Secret Service," Rose whispered. "No one but them uses Lumic's version of earpods anymore. Everyone else has gone to a different system, even though the earpods were better technology in some ways. No one wants to be compared to Lumic in any way."
"So why do they use them?" the Doctor asked quietly.
"Because the Secret Service only reports to the president, so they really don't care what anyone else thinks."
As they were speaking, several of the agents broke away from the group to guard all the exits to the ballroom.
"So they're Secret Service? Not MI-5?"
"Not in this world," she replied. "There's the NSA, which is the National Security Agency, the ISS, which is the International Security Service, the Secret Service, which primarily guards the president, and of course Torchwood. Military Intelligence is a completely separate thing and doesn't involve civilians at all."
"So if they're Secret Service, is that…" the Doctor began.
"Harriet Jones." Rose nodded and grinned.
As they watched, they saw Pete cross the ballroom to greet Great Britain's president. After a moment, they saw the President and Pete look over at them and he motioned for the Doctor and Rose to join them.
After Rose set their half-empty champagne flutes down on a nearby table, she took the Doctor's hand and their fingers automatically entwined. "Let's go," she said and they crossed the crowded room. As they approached the President, two of the black-suited agents broke off from the rest of the group and stepped in front of them, hands near but not quite touching the weapons at their hips. The President waved her hand absently and the agents allowed them to pass.
"This is not the time and place for our discussion, of course," Harriet Jones was saying to Pete, "but new information has come to my attention since we last spoke and I need to discuss with you Torchwood's role in all this. We need to hold our meeting sooner than we originally planned. We also need to talk about Mr. Simmonds' recent trip overseas."
"Certainly, ma'am," he replied. "At your convenience."
"Then I shall expect you, Director Tyler, and Mr. Simmonds tomorrow at 8:00," she said. "Please be prompt. Rose," she continued, turning to her. "It's lovely to see you again."
"Thank you, ma'am," Rose replied. "It's nice to see you, too."
"And who is this with you?"
"Ma'am, this is…" she began.
"John Smith," the Doctor interrupted with a small nod of his head. "An honor to meet you."
"Harriet Jones, President of Great Britain," she said, thrusting out her hand. The Doctor shook it with a sense of déjà vu. For a moment, he almost expected her to pull out her ID.
"The Doctor is my…" Rose continued and then stopped, glancing at him. She was still uncertain how to refer to him. Boyfriend just sounded odd.
Harriet Jones raised her eyebrows. "'The Doctor'?"
The Doctor cleared his throat, and Rose inwardly cringed as she suddenly remembered she wasn't supposed to call him that around people they didn't know well.
"That's me," he said. "Bit of a nickname."
"What are you a doctor of?" Harriet asked.
"A good many things, actually," he replied evasively, pulling on his left ear.
"Really. Like what?" she asked.
"Oh, you know, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, literature. The usual," he supplied. "I'm rather good at languages as well."
"Really? Perhaps we could use you in our foreign diplomatic corps," she said.
Rose looped her arm through the Doctor's. "Ah, no, ma'am," she said with a laugh, before the Doctor could say anything. "The Doctor is good at many things, but being diplomatic is not one of them. He has a disturbing tendency to be blunt to the point of rudeness."
The Doctor shot her a look, and she grinned teasingly at him.
"Ah," the President replied with her own smile. "Yes. Being forthright is considered a virtue in many places, but not in either politics or diplomacy."
Everyone, other than the security detail, laughed politely.
President Jones pursed her lips and looked puzzled for a moment. "The Doctor," she said thoughtfully, "why does that name sound so familiar?" Harriet Jones's eyes narrowed as she looked at the man in question. "I seem to recall a report about a 'Doctor' who was involved in the take down of John Lumic. That wouldn't happen to have been you by any chance?"
The Doctor and Rose exchanged concerned glances with Pete. He could get rid of the internet files on himself, but he couldn't erase people's memories of him.
"Yes, ma'am, that was me," he told her.
"That was good work," she said. "Excellent work in fact. But I don't recall hearing anything about you after that. It's almost as if you fell off the face of the earth. Where have you been, may I ask?"
"Here and there," he answered with a shrug. "I've been… traveling."
"Traveling?" she asked. "But that was more than seven years ago. You can't mean to say you were traveling all that time."
He nodded vigorously. "Yep. Pretty much. That's what I do… did. Travel. Natural born traveler, me. Spent most of my life traveling."
"Does that mean you'll be leaving again soon?"
Putting an arm around Rose, the Doctor smiled at her and she smiled back. "No, ma'am. I plan on sticking around," he answered. He then turned back to Harriet Jones. "But if I ever do decide to leave, I won't be going alone."
"Yes, I can see that," she responded with a small smile.
"Let me through," a loud voice ordered, and they all turned. Two agents were preventing Jackie from approaching them.
"Oh, look. Here comes trouble," the Doctor whispered in Rose's ear as the agents received orders in their earpods to let Jackie through. Rose jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, but she was unable to completely stifle a giggle.
"Jackie, pleasure to see you again," Harriet Jones said when she had joined them.
"Very nice to see you, too, ma'am," Jackie answered. "Mind you, it would have been a lot sooner if some of your guards here had let me through when I asked the first time." This was accompanied with a glare at all the agents.
"Yes, sorry about that. They've been a bit over-protective of me as of late."
Jackie looked like she was going to continue complaining so Rose quickly changed the subject. "Ma'am, if I might ask a favor, I have a friend who would really like to meet you. Would that be alright?"
"Of course, my dear," Harriet responded. "Is your friend here?"
"Yeah, she's right over there," Rose said, gesturing at the crowd near the pop singer. "She's the one in the red dress trying to pull her fiancé away from Sherí."
They all looked across the room at Martha, who was leading Tom away from the crowd surrounding the pop star.
"Why don't you get her and bring her over now?" suggested Harriet.
"Yes, ma'am," Rose said with a smile, and walked away to get Martha.
Later, Rose having fulfilled her obligations to her parents by attending the party, and to Martha by introducing her and her fiancé, Tom Milligan, to Harriet Jones, she grabbed the Doctor's hand and pulled him down the hallway and into an open doorway.
Rose flipped a switch on the wall and the room was flooded with light. The room she had pulled him into was an empty meeting room of some sort and didn't appear to have been used in a while. Several long rectangular tables had been placed against the two of the walls, with corresponding chairs stacked nearby and a whiteboard on a stand shoved into a corner. Otherwise the room was empty. As soon as they entered she turned to him.
"I'm sorry," she apologized.
The Doctor looked at her in surprise. "For what?" he asked.
"We both knew that you needed to keep a low profile and what do I do? First time we go out, I tell Harriet Jones who you are. Harriet Jones, the president of Great Britain." He cupped her face in his hands and grinned at her, looking exceptionally pleased. "What are you so happy about?" she asked. "I blew it."
His grin widened. "Rose, you called me the Doctor automatically, without even thinking about it. A little over a week ago you didn't even believe I was the Doctor."
She smiled ruefully and he bent to kiss her. It was the first time they had been alone together since early that morning, and he suddenly felt that that had been an incredibly long time. Much too long. All his previous good intentions forgotten, he deepened the kiss, coaxing her mouth open, tasting the champagne she had had earlier. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close, and he felt his body begin to respond to her nearness.
The orchestra had been playing a variety of dance tunes all evening, the music filling the ballroom and echoing down the hallway. As soon as Rose heard the opening strains of the next song the orchestra was starting, she broke away and grinned.
"Come on," she said. "Let's dance. They're playing our song." As he took her hand and began to walk to the door, she pulled him back and shook her head. "No, right here."
"I thought you said that this was your song with Jack Harkness," he said, raising one eyebrow and pulling her back into his arms to the sounds of Moonlight Serenade.
"Nah," she said. "Not since Albion Hospital. When we talked about dancing. It became our song then."
It both felt like yesterday and a lifetime ago, discussing dancing and dancing with her during World War II. Two lifetimes ago, actually, if he thought about it, from his ninth self 'til now. For a moment he was taken back to that incredible night of just that once everyone living followed by dancing around the console with Rose. It was one of the happiest times he'd had during that regeneration. He smiled at the memory.
"I thought In the Mood was our song," he said, thinking of one of the songs they had danced to in the TARDIS.
"That is, too," she answered, "but it's too fast. This is nice." She rested her head on his shoulder as they swayed to the music.
Too soon the song was over and the orchestra began one with a quicker beat. Still they stood there in the deserted room, swaying to a song only they could hear.
"We should get back," he said eventually.
"Uh huh," she answered. Neither of them moved to leave; instead they continued to stand there, slowly swaying.
"Mum will be looking for me," she said softly a few minutes later.
"Can't have that," he responded in a low voice.
Song after song continued to play, and they continued to slowly sway to the music, her head on his shoulder and his arms around her waist. Finally she pulled away from him, took his hand and began to walk towards the door.
When they got there, instead of walking out she closed the door and pulled his head down to hers. Automatically he wrapped his arms around her, turning to lean against the wall and pull her into his embrace. As she deepened the kiss into a proper snog, she ran her hands through his hair, one hand dropping to caress the back of his neck, and she heard him quietly moan with pleasure.
She leaned into him, molding her body into his and, with a groan, he tightened his grip on her, simultaneously pulling her closer and thrusting his hips forward. A rush of heat pooled in her stomach and moved lower as she felt evidence of his desire pressing hard against her. If she had had any questions about his attraction to her before, she had no doubts anymore. She pulled away to stare at him and he opened his eyes to stare back, breathing hard. He looked deliciously rumpled, she thought, his hair a mess and her bright red lippie all over his face. A smile played around her lips as inwardly she came to a decision. Reaching into his pocket and pulling out a handkerchief, she wiped his face and leaned towards his ear.
"Mum and Dad are going to be busy here for hours," she said in a low voice as she stuck the lipstick-covered cloth back into his pocket. "And Tony is staying at Mrs. McDonald's tonight. Even the staff will have gone home. There's no one at the mansion right now."
The Doctor knew exactly what she was suggesting. He hadn't wanted their first time to be at the mansion, but right at that moment he couldn't bring himself to care where it happened, just so long as it happened soon. Very, very soon. And although he had always hated teleports and vortex manipulators, he would have given almost anything to have either one at the moment. He took a deep, ragged breath. "How fast can we get back to the mansion?" he asked.
"Let's find out, shall we?" She smiled flirtatiously, tongue touching her teeth, and put out her hand. "Gimme your mobile. I don't have mine with me."
He looked down again at the form fitting bodice of her dress, the way it hugged her body, accentuating every curve... "No, I don't suppose you do," he said huskily. He forced himself to tear his eyes away, pulled the phone out of his pocket and handed it to her.
Rose phoned the driver of the limousine and made arrangements for him to meet them in back at the service entrance.
"To avoid the press," she told him after she rang off. She slipped the mobile back into his jacket pocket. "I just need to go and find Dad to tell him we're going. If I tell Mum, all I'll get is an argument."
He laughed. As she left to find Pete, he leaned back against the wall and ran his hands through his hair. He took several deep breaths, unconsciously holding the tip of his tongue against the back of his teeth. His heart was still pounding, and not from desire this time. Well, not entirely. Oh, the desire was still there, most definitely it was still there, but so was something else he wasn't expecting. Nervousness. It wasn't as if this would be his first time, he told himself. Well, it would be in this body, but still. He had been a father, and a grandfather for goodness sake. But this was Rose.
The level, the strength of his feelings for Rose were beyond anything he had ever experienced before. Oh, they always had been strong. Almost from the first minute he had met her he had loved her. And those feelings had just grown stronger after his regeneration. That body, his looks, his personality, even his accent had been influenced by his love for her. But since the metacrisis…. His feelings for her had grown exponentially. He not just loved her, he needed her, he desired her, he craved her. And it terrified him.
He was startled when she returned almost immediately. "I told Dad we were going back to the mansion, and he told me that they'd be at least another few hours. After we get back, I'm just going to send the limo back here."
"You didn't tell him why we were going back," he almost squeaked, and he cleared his throat to try to bring it back into its normal range. She looked at him like he was an idiot, and he realized he was one. "Sorry, of course not. You'd never do anything like that. No one else's business why we'd be going back so soon, anyway. Particularly not Pete's. Or Jackie's. Really, really not Jackie's business. Really, really, really not…" He realized he was rambling again.
She stared at him. "Are you alright?"
"Me?" And now it truly did come out an octave higher than he intended. He cleared his throat again. "Of course. Never better. Never, never, never…"
He couldn't seem to stop his gob, so Rose did it for him, closing the distance between them again and covering his mouth with her own. He sank into the kiss, feeling like he was falling and not wanting to ever stop. She pulled away and wiped the rest of her lipstick from his mouth, this time with her thumb.
"Let's go," she said, taking his hand, and he would have followed her anywhere.
In the back of the limo, she pulled him in for a kiss again, unbuttoning the jacket of his tux and slipping her hands underneath it. He pulled her to himself, pulling her half onto his lap, and closed his eyes as she kissed his throat. She untied his bowtie and he yanked it off and shoved it in a pocket.
The limo ride was both interminably long and way too short at the same time. As they pulled up to the mansion, they were both breathing hard but still fully dressed, in deference to the driver the Doctor told himself. He felt jittery. Feeling out of control in any way, in his surroundings or now in particular in his body, had always made him panic, and he desperately tried to rein in his anxiety. This was Rose Tyler, the love of his life. The love of his lives, he reminded himself. And somehow this thought did nothing to relieve his nervousness.
They stepped out of the limo. As it pulled away, he pulled her into his arms, kissing her until they were both breathless.
"Let's go inside," she suggested in a low voice when they broke apart. She took his hand and squeezed it.
Heart pounding, he stared at her, strongly suspecting his longing and desire were written all over his face. Finding he was completely unable to speak, a true rarity, he nodded dumbly and they turned towards the mansion.
And he stopped.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Look at that window," he said quietly, all nervousness suddenly gone. "In the corner room on the second floor."
"That's Mum and Dad's room," she said.
He nodded. "There's a light from a torch moving in it. And I saw a shadow cross the window. Someone is in there."
The Doctor let go of her and started running the short distance to the house, pulling his mobile out of the inside pocket of his jacket and dialing almost in one move. Rose followed as quickly as she could in four inch stiletto heels. Finally she stopped and pulled off her shoes, reminding herself wryly that she was with the Doctor. She should have known better than to wear shoes she couldn't run in. She hiked up her dress and followed him.
Meanwhile, the Doctor had made it to the front door and was talking quietly into his mobile. "Pete, we have a problem here. Someone broke into the mansion and is searching it even as we speak."
Rose had joined the Doctor on the doorstep of the mansion. He noticed she was holding her shoes in one hand.
"You need to get someone here right away," he said into the phone.
"On it," Pete responded into his ear and immediately rang off.
"Ready, Rose?" he asked, turning towards her.
"Always," she answered, and then remembered something. "Do you have a key? Cos I haven't got one in this dress."
"Always." He grinned at her mischievously and pulled his new sonic screwdriver out of an inside pocket of the jacket of his tux.
He took one last look at her, appreciating the view for a split second before turning and sonicking the lock. Entering the mansion, they stopped in the foyer and listened. Rose bent to quietly set her shoes on the floor, momentarily jealous of the black Converse he was wearing.
"Whoever it is is headed out the back door," the Doctor said, taking her hand, and started to move quickly towards the kitchen.
They were too late. The kitchen door was still swinging back and forth, and the back door stood open. Crossing to it, they looked out. Despite the outdoor flood lights that had come on automatically, they saw no one. Whoever it was had disappeared into the night.
"Damn," Rose said.