A/N: So sorry for the delay! Things got really crazy out in real life. I'm not so sure about this chapter, or where this story is going. I'm hoping it's not too disappointing. If anyone's still interested, let me know what you think

John was nervous. It seemed to be a constant state for him lately. Nervous and distracted, which led to being more nervous. To this point all of the read throughs had been scenes where he acted "the monster" and it was going well. The director's staff was impressed, thoroughly assured that they'd selected the right leading man. But today it was all going to come crashing down. Today marked the beginning of the Beast's softening toward Belle. John was terrified.

To make matters worse, John was totally preoccupied with his costume designer, who he hadn't seen since the previous week. He coudn't get her out of his mind and he didn't understand why that could possibly be. At first he chalked it up to feeling a bit guilty about being to rude to her on the morning of their meeting, but that excuse was starting to sound tired, even to his own ears.

She had promised to come to a rehearsal but hadn't shown yet. Every day he'd be all anticipation, and every day he was disappointed. Today was different. He almost didn't want her to appear. Today was the day John Smith had to play the part of the lover, and he just knew he wasn't going to be able to do it. He definitely didn't want an even larger audience witnessing his failures, especially an audience that contained Rose. He was starting to understand that the girl was... important. That might not have been all that he was feeling toward her, but it was the closest adjective he was comfortable with at the moment.

He hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep last night. Actually he'd been rather sleepless for a while. He was being haunted by dreams. Some were terrible nightmares, some were... really, really good dreams. Dreams that embarrassed him when he woke but dreams that he shamefully looked forward to returning to but found himself too wound up to rest. All of these fantasies, good or bad, had the same thing in common, they all had Rose as his co-star.

So, nervous, distracted, and sleep deprived (and maybe even a bit depraved), John made his way to his rehearsal.

x13x

Rose was working diligently on the costume. It was really coming together nicely. Soon she'd need John to wear the whole thing at once and do a scene so that she could be sure that it moved well and didn't restrict him or distract from the dialogue. Costumes were important, of course, but the dialogue and the actors are what make a production successful.

She was busy. Very busy. Too busy to say, take a day to attend a rehearsal. Yes, she was definitely too busy. But even though she was too busy to actually go, she apparently wasn't too busy to THINK about going. To obsess about going even. To stare at her closet trying to figure out what exactly to wear, were she not too busy to actually go.

It was another day that she was too busy to attend a rehearsal that she found herself staring down at the costume she was working on and ruminating, as she had much too frequently, about the man that was supposed to wear it.

"Rose, get a grip on yourself," she said to the empty room. She huffed out a deep breath, and dropped her hands to her lap. "This is insane." She stood up and went to look at herself in the mirror, thinking she'd give herself a stern lecture about her childish behavior and then get back to work. "You're a grown woman with a crush. It's just a little crush, no big deal."

Her reflection seemed to mock her a bit. The woman in the mirror seemed to say 'Yeah right! Some little crush that has had to so distracted you might need a blood transfusion for all the times you've stuck yourself with your sewing needles. Just a little crush that's had you waking up frustrated and breathing hard form the dreams you've been having. Just some-'

"All right!" She interrupted herself, odd that, "It's a big crush. A big, fat, gooey, knee buckling, knicker soaking, crush." Disgusted with her self she turned away from the mirror. "Nothing can come from it! He's an actor, which is just another word for LIAR!" Coming to a sort of resolution, Rose looked back at the mirror. "Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna go there today and get him out of our system."

She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw her reflection wink at her.

x13x

John was in the bathroom splashing his face with water and giving his reflection a pep talk. "You can do this." It felt like a lie though, as did most of his actions today. Acting had always felt real to him. He suffered with his characters, succeeded with them and agonized over their defeats. But this, today, these scenes, he couldn't get them to be true, not for him. "You're going to get back out there and make them all fall in love with the way you fall in love." He stared himself in the eyes, trying to make it stick. After another few seconds he let out a huff and went back to rejoin the cast.

Looking mostly at his feet as he approached the door, he didn't notice the woman in front of him until he knocked into her. He was quick enough to grab her before she fell, but she was knocked off balance and ended up in his arms. Then the strangest thing happened, he got light headed and a bit dizzy. Reflexively, he held her tighter to him, close enough to bury his nose in her hair and really breathe her in.

She whimpered.

So did he.

"I'm sorry," he said into her hair, then, pulling back a bit to look into her face, he continued, "I have to pay mo-" and then he stopped and stared at her, because it was Rose, and she was in his arms, and he had to remind himself to keep breathing.

The broken sentence pulled Rose into realizing her surroundings, with a blush she said, "Well, your manners have improved, but we've got to stop running into each other this way."

John smiled back at her, "I'm learning." His gaze drifted to her mouth, which was turned up to him in a smile that showed just a hint of her tongue. She hadn't moved out of his arms yet, hadn't even made an attempt to put any distance between them, and John was certainly not going to be the one to instigate that. As far as he was concerned she fit there and that's where she should stay.

x13x

Martha had been worried about John. He left the room obviously distressed about his performance. It wasn't all that bad, but it definitely wasn't what was expected of the great John Smith. It occurred to her that , knowing John, he might just quit the production entirely if he didn't think he could carry off the part. Then where would they be? The Family was still out there, she didn't know where the TARDIS was, and she had Rose to worry about, who hadn't made any contact in the last week. She was frazzled, homesick, she hated being an agent, and she missed the Doctor

She looked at John sometimes and thought she saw the Doctor coming through, thought she saw some of that ancient eternity in his eyes. And then he would blink and it would disappear.

The Doctor would know what to do. He'd make up some ridiculous scheme, probably whip out his sonic and make the villains turn into cotton candy or something. She laughed a bit at that which shook her out of her reverie. John had been gone for a while, she should probably go see if he was all right. Maybe she'd stroke his ego a bit more, and give him a hug.

The door to the rehearsal room opened and Martha came out looking worried, and then her temper flared. She had sent herself to find him after he practically ran from the room only to find him in some woman's arms. John was leaning down toward her, looking like he might try to kiss her. The woman didn't look like she'd mind. Typical Doctor! Always flirting. She really thought she was getting a reprieve from this because John didn't seem to be inclined in that direction. He'd had ample opportunities, just didn't partake. Was probably just a matter of time. Martha was once again on the back burner.

Groaning inwardly, she let the door slam behind her which effectively broke their mood. They jumped apart a little, but not enough, she noticed regretfully, for John to let the woman go. Martha called out to claim his attention, "John, you should really get back in there."

The woman turned and Martha saw that it was Rose. For some reason, this only made Martha feel worse.

x13x