Title: Taking the Plunge
Author: Shen
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Rose, Ten, Donna, Jack, Gwen, Owen, Tosh, Ianto
Setting/Spoilers: No spoilers whatsoever. Part of my Peril-verse (see my profile). Recap of said 'verse is at shengirl dot livejournal dot com/8390 dot html
Teaser: Trouble in paradise! The Doctor's really done it now, and his friends suggest a rather drastic solution: Marriage?!
10: Party Night
Rose leaned back in the pilot's chair, biting her lip absentmindedly. Her gaze lay skyward, but her mind rested entirely in her dreamworld.
'He's marrying me. I'm marrying him tomorrow. I'm marrying the Doctor!' A grin had sprung to her face during the course of the thoughts, and they concluded with a giggle. She felt giddy and possessed just a few butterflies in her stomach, like a child on her first bicycle. Except many, many times better.
"Rose, are you alright?" Rose fell from her reverie and looked in front of her, where a concerned Doctor was inches from her face. "You don't usually think dimensional stabilizers are very funny." She looked around, trying to think of an excuse for laughing, but all she saw was Donna, standing behind the Doctor and looking very amused at Rose's giggly trip to lala land.
"Since when is anything about your piloting 'stable?'" she blurted, opting for the cheap shot. The Doctor scowled, and Donna laughed.
"She makes a good point, you know. Unless last week's sojourn to the planet of bog creatures was deliberate, in which case I owe you a smack. Even the TARDIS can't get the odor out of my jacket." The Doctor turned to give Donna her portion of the Doctor Pouty Glare.
"Ha. Well, as it happens, we're almost arrived at today's destination, but if you two are going to be whiny about it..." the Doctor griped. Rose got up and hugged him from behind.
"Aw, we love you. Even if I had to bathe four times to get the smell of baked diapers, pea soup, and decaying Slitheen out of my hair." She gave him an extra squeeze to take the sting out of the words and closed them with a kiss to his neck. It bled the last of the tension out of his form, and he turned around to hug her properly. Then, the TARDIS gave a gentle shudder signifying a smooth landing, and the Doctor moved to engage the handbrake.
"So where are we?" Rose asked. Her lover just smirked and gestured to the door. Gleeful, she bounded over to it, threw it open, and feasted her eyes on- the Torchwood Hub?
"Hi, Rose!" said Gwen as she and Tosh piled into the TARDIS. Gwen hugged Rose, and then Rose hugged the shyer Toshiko, all while pleased and bewildered.
She spoke to the Doctor first, "You didn't tell me we were going to visit everyone! And what're you two carrying?" She'd just noticed that the Torchwood girls had shopping bags along.
"Honey, it's your Hen Night!" exclaimed Donna, smiling evilly. "We're popping over to London; just had to pick these girls up first. And I know Gwen's your maid of honor, but I asked she let me plan it. It was a sight easier for me than it would've been for her. Got the Doctor to get to your mobile while you were asleep, and he gave me numbers to help me invite everyone. They're meeting us when we get there."
"Really?" Delighted, Rose crushed Donna in a hug, to the older woman's half-hearted complaints. Just then, Ianto, Jack, and Owen strolled into the control room.
"What're you lot doing?" came the Doctor's mystified query. Jack's cheesiest grin appeared in response.
"We've got a silly human tradition for you, Doc."
Ianto elaborated, "Stag do."
"What, no," the Doctor sputtered. Rose laughed and pointed at him.
"Haha, they got you, too! You actually drove yourself to your own surprise." The concept was too delicious not to tease him over, but Rose also found it plain wonderful. She trusted Jack to help the Doctor relax and have a good time before their wedding, no matter how silly he felt having so much attention paid to him. The Doctor only liked being the center of attention when he called it to himself.
So it was only after much hemming and hawing that he agreed to the arrangement and took everyone to London, where the girls hopped off first. Jack and the Doctor got kisses goodbye before the gaggle of women trooped off to Martha's and Tom's house. Being a pair of doctors, plus having the sort of extra pay UNIT allotted people with Martha's unique experience, they had a nice place that was well-suited to hosting a party.
Months ago, Rose had been worried about meeting Martha for the first time. Both the Doctor and Donna had mentioned Martha's feelings for him and the ill treatment she received. To make things worse, Rose had no idea if the other woman still harbored such emotions. In light of that, Rose deliberately avoided being extra nice. If Martha was still bitter towards her, that would have seemed patronizing. Instead, she acted basically friendly, slightly crass, and fairly derogatory towards the Doctor (in a loving way). Martha joined in the down-putting, as companions are prone to doing, and the ice was broken from there.
Now, Martha greeted Rose with a hug and, "Vodka, whiskey, or beer?"
Jack pulled the Doctor out of the TARDIS by his hand, only pausing to let him lock it before hauling him down the road.
"Where are we going? And slow down; what are you, a poorly leash-trained Rottweiler?"
"You'll see!" exclaimed Jack. There was an ominous pause, in which the tapping of shoes on pavement was the only noise.
Sounding very worried, the Doctor asked, "You didn't hire a stripper, did you?"
"Jack volunteered to strip for you, but the Doctor wouldn't let him," Donna informed Rose.
"Aaaww!" whined Rose and Martha simultaneously.
Nodding sympathetically, Donna said, "Yeah, I know..." Keisha, who had arrived with Shireen a few minutes before, hummed her agreement until Gwen raised an eyebrow at all of them. Just then, before Donna could find out if the woman was honestly offended by everyone drooling over her man, the front door opened. Sarah Jane Smith waltzed through and waved at everyone.
"Hello!" she chimed in her ever-so-proper accent.
"Who are you?" asked Shireen in a way that almost managed to sound friendly. Donna guessed she was confused as to why a person of Sarah's age had come to Rose's party and if by any chance she'd found the wrong house.
Sarah answered wryly, "I'm Sarah Jane. Practically the den mother in this young group." There was an awkward pause, wherein Sarah Jane held a very serious face. "I brought the tequila." She smiled, and everyone cheered.
Jack just rolled his eyes and kept walking until they pulled up in front of a building that looked dingy on the outside.
"Laser tag?" the Doctor asked in pure surprise.
Owen clapped him on the back and said, "Don't worry, old man, we'll put you on a team with Jack. 'Snot fair to pit a pacifist against a bunch of career gun-carriers, is it?"
"Never have I ever been arrested." The speaker grinned evilly.
"Rose!" yelled Shireen, shocked.
"Goddamn you, Keisha." Rose glared over her cup as she drank, while Shireen and Keisha boggled at the fact that literally everyone in the room except themselves and Gwen took a drink. Then, the latter narrowed her eyes.
"Tosh?!"
"Oh, hush," replied the tipsy Japanese woman. "I don't have to tell a story unless I'm the only one who drinks." She took an extra swig for the hell of it.
"Hand it over," ordered Jack, holding his palm out expectantly and tapping his foot.
"Aaww, come on. Why do I have to give you my screwdriver?"
"You lost screwdriver privileges when you made your laser gun into an actual laser. It's a good thing Owen was wearing kevlar. And for that matter, how the hell did you do that? It shouldn't be possible; it's just an LED!"
"I might, um, might have used some spare parts I had in my coat. But I didn't mean to make it that strong! It was just supposed to feel a little warm. I mean, loud noises and blinking lights, while annoying, aren't the most exciting ways of telling someone they've been shot, are they? I thought some added stimuli would be nice." Jack remained deadpan.
"Uh-huh. Well, maybe that's enough violent excitement for you tonight. Change of plans: disable your weapon before some hapless kid hurts himself, then come on. We're going back to the TARDIS so you can use some of your special stash to pregame for the bar. It'll take far too long to get you drunk on human liquor."
Rose leaned on Donna while they walked back to the TARDIS, the bride a ways past tipsy. It had been a well-planned, entertaining evening where everyone but Donna and Rose had brought food or drink, they'd played card and drinking games, and then they'd settled into a movie. The Torchwood crowd was staying the night in the TARDIS because, while Rose originally considered a Cardiff wedding, the London area seemed more practical. Cardiff was a home away from TARDIS, but London had friends and family who couldn't be ferried by space ship. Then, when Rose realized she could get married in the same park her parents had, the idea went from "practical" to "perfect."
"I love you, Donna. I dun... I dunno what I'd do without you. You're the best."
"Love you, too, blondie," Donna responded with mixed amusement and exasperation.
Rose continued to slur, "Thanks for helpin' plan my wedding. And fer booze. And for distractin' the Doctor sometimes so's I can sleep." Donna threw a gaze backwards to make sure Gwen and Tosh were still trailing behind them somewhere before speaking.
"You do the same for me, though I imagine your way of distractin's more fun," she joked. However, Rose put on a little frown, making the older woman suddenly concerned.
"You won't leave us, will you? I'll... I'll keep the Doctor from finding your biscuit stashes. I know tha's irritatin'." She was looking up at Donna blearily, and Donna's heart twinged. At some point, this drunken bottle blonde had become family; it was pleasant to see that the feeling ran both ways. She squeezed her charge around the shoulders affectionately.
"I'm not going anywhere, twit. A bad day with you two's better than any good day as a temp." Rose smiled and squeezed her back, content.
When they reached the TARDIS, they found the Doctor snoozing on the captain's chair and Jack leaning against a coral pillar.
"What happened to him?" asked Donna.
"I had him drink some special liquor. Then, it didn't seem to be working fast enough, so I made him drink some more. Turns out it's sort of... slow-release in his system. We sat at the pub, watched some university students act stupid, played pool, and got some really great male bonding done until Mr. Mouth over there got truly sloshed." Rose snorted and snickered.
"Lemme guess. Started tellin' stories?" she asked gleefully. Jack nodded.
Flatly, he elaborated, "Yeah. Did you know he got hit on by Shakespeare? Or that the first time he had ice cream was when he was 119? Did you hear every detail about it? Oh! Did you hear about the time he actually landed his ship on the Wicked Witch of the East? Though I'm pretty sure he was making that one up." Rose was cracking up at this point, and Donna had a case of the giggles herself. She would definitely have to get the Doctor drunk one day; it sounded hilarious.
"Luckily, drowsiness is the second stage of Time Lord intoxication, so I walked him back here. He only made it as far as the chair, though." Rose waved her hand nonchalantly.
"He'll be fine. Thanks for walking me back, Donna. Make sure the other two get in alright, Jack; I'm headed off to bed."
"See you tomorrow, beautiful," replied Jack with a soft smile.
"Not if I see you first!" she called down the hall.