The New Adventures of the Doctor and Rose

Episode 11

Special thanks to my beta, cytherea999

"It's really a TARDIS," Rose gasped as she looked around the oddly shaped cavern once more. She had said it once, but it bore repeating.

"Yes," the Doctor replied as he placed a hand on the central column. "She's been here for a long time."

"How long?" Rose asked.

He closed his eyes, concentrating. Perhaps asking the TARDIS herself. "A thousand years, at least. She's badly damaged. Weak."

"Can you fix her?" Rose asked worriedly.

He opened his eyes slowly, "Maybe temporarily. Enough to move her closer to home. But once we get her safe, she might just keep herself grounded." He looked at Rose, "I don't think we'll be travelling with her, Rose."

He could see the disappointment on Rose's face, but also the understanding. "Where's her pilot?" She asked as she glanced around, eyes lighting up. "If there's another Time Lord, maybe-"

"He's gone," The Doctor interrupted gently. "Dead. I dreamt about him a few months back," he shuddered at the memory. "Died of old age over and over and over again, trapped in a time bubble. It must have been excruciating."

Rose winced at his description and the humming she had heard earlier changed into something else.

Wailing.

Her breath caught. "She sounds so sad…"

"She's been suffering," the Doctor replied. "When she sensed me, she called out for help." He met Rose's eyes, "And she saved my life." He noted her look of confusion and explained. "After I was hurt, she sensed I had enough Time Lord DNA in my body to kick-start a healing coma."

"I didn't know she could do that."

"She's a type 103. Can tap into a Time Lord's mind and body if need be." Rose looked concerned. "Being part human, though, we can never have a complete connection. Not like she had with her original pilot," he clarified.

Rose nodded, then stroked the control panel, "Thank you," she said softly. "For bringing him back to me."

"Her and I are the last survivors of the Time War," the Doctor murmured quietly.

"How'd she get here?" Rose asked.

"From what I understand, the fighting ripped a hole between dimensions. Sent her here." Rose paled, and the Doctor understood. "Could explain a lot about why this Universe seemed so accessible from the other one without any Time Lord intervention." He then took a deep breath and leaned back against the console, "Still… the tears are gone for good now."

"So tell me about this Type 103," Rose requested as she walked around what she now considered the control room.

The Doctor stroked the console, "She was bred as a weapon. Unlike my Type 40, Type 103s were developed about a year or so after the Time War begun. Very defensive about who comes near them, too. She was even hesitant to let an inferior species in."

He quickly caught himself and turned to the blonde a few feet away from him, "Not that I think you're inferior, of course. You're Rose Tyler, and Rose Tyler is brilliant." He grinned, then glanced back at the column. "But Time Lords have…" he paused. "… had… that attitude. Type 103s picked up on it." He sniffed, "Thought humans took too long to develop space travel. Very primitive, you lot."

"Doctor…" Rose warned before the Doctor could dig himself deeper.

"Sorry," he apologized quickly. "Point is, she didn't want to let you in 'till she sensed Time Lord DNA."

"But I'm human."

"Of course you are," he pulled her close and planted an enthusiastic kiss atop her head. "Wonderfully, beautifully human."

"So how could a human have Time Lord DNA?" She asked as she hugged him back, then added. "Aside from having a human/Time Lord meta-crisis."

"OH, yes…well…" he rubbed the back of his neck and shifted his weight. "Genetic transfer."

Rose leaned back and studied him warily, "What do you mean genetic transfer?"

The Doctor glanced back at the central column, jamming his hands into his pockets, "Well, you and I...transferred… DNA last night. And again this morning." He cheeks reddened. "Genetic transfer."

Rose let out a snort of laughter, "Is that what Time Lords call it then?"

"Are you having a go at me, Ms. Tyler?" The Doctor pouted.

She slid her hands over his backside and pressed against him. "Not as long as you promise me a good, long genetic transfer in the near future, Dr. Smith."

He let out something akin to a squeak but before he could react to the pheromones she was releasing, something else caught his eye.

He stumbled back from the tempting invitation and walked a few feet away, picking something up off the floor. One quick lick told him all he needed to know.

"What is it?" Rose asked as she came up to him.

"Dirt. Mud, actually. I'd say about twenty years old. Probably from before Torchwood built this room around her."

Rose shook her head in awe "You really need to explain to me how licking something can tell you everything about them."

"Well, that's easy! Taste is actually the best way for a Time Lord to determine the chemical makeup of an object," he brought is lips to her ear, voice dropping low. "Or person."

Rose's eyes went wide when she caught the innuendo. Before she could respond, however, he quickly hopped back to the console. "Now let's see if this girl has enough energy to power up, shall we?" he suggested, rolling on the balls of his feet as his hands flew across the controls.

He studied the screen readouts, then pulled off a side-panel and crawled underneath. "C'mon … just give me that little bit of spark…" he begged the ship.

Rose heard the hum of the sonic screwdriver and suddenly felt the long-abandoned TARDIS begin to shake. "Doctor!"

"Hold on! Working on it!"

The ringing of a loud bell filled the room, causing her to clamp her hands over her ears. She heard the Doctor shout something about a cloister bell as he continued with his task. The dim lights suddenly began flickering off and on until finally the shaking stopped and all went silent.

"Doctor?" Rose called nervously, reaching out to find him in the sudden darkness.

"Here," he grabbed her hands and guided them to the console. "Feel those switches? On the left. Yes… there. Flip them up when I say so."

She heard more noisy clanging, and finally, "NOW!"

Rose quickly did as instructed and the lights powered up again.

Before Rose could ask what she had done, the two heard voices shouting outside the ship, followed by the stamp of boots along the floor. She held her breath.

"We received reports of movement down here," came a voice.

"No sign of anything 'cept the usual," a second voice answered.

"What is that sound?" the first one spoke again. "Like grinding."

"Probably rats in the vents again," the second one responded.

There were a few tense moments of silence, then the first voice spoke once more. "I suppose it was a false alarm. All right then… everyone back to your posts!"

Rose let out a relieved sigh as the voices and footsteps retreated.

"Good girl," The Doctor spoke to the ship. "One more thing, then you can rest for a bit." He waited for a response, and seemed to receive it before programming the console for the next step.

Rose felt the ship shudder and shake and heard the engines power up.

A few minutes later, they were home.

"You did WHAT?" Pete Tyler boomed when the Doctor and Rose explained why a blue police box had now attached itself like a garden gnome to his sprawling green backyard.

"We had to get her out of there, Dad," Rose protested.

"You stole top secret government property!"

"Time Lord property," the Doctor corrected. "It never belonged to your government, Pete."

"They didn't even know what they had," Rose added. "The Doctor figures they thought it was some kind of spatial disturbance. She camouflaged herself to look like her surroundings."

Pete frowned, "Doesn't seem to be doing that now."

"Well…" the Doctor tugged on an ear. "She must have picked up the image of the other TARDIS from my head and tried to make me feel more at home. Rather sweet, actually."

Pete was unimpressed. "And now that this so-called spatial disturbance has disappeared, you don't think the lot down in Section 8 are going to wonder what happened?"

"Oh they'll wonder," the Doctor answered. "But they'll never figure it out. Hard to miss what you never had."

"But I still have a blue police box sitting in my yard," Pete replied.

"Don't worry about that," the Doctor said. "I have a plan."

"Is it as brilliant as the one that ended with you breaking into Section 8?" Pete asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, better than that!" The Doctor grinned. "So much better, Pete!"

A month had passed since the Doctor and Rose had rescued the new TARDIS and brought it home. Pete had finally understood that leaving a TARDIS in the hands of the government would have proven to be more problematic than necessary.

Rose looked out over the backyard – a good acre of land – for any sign of the Doctor and a blue police box, but no luck. The TARDIS had moved to a more secluded spot to rest herself and the Doctor had been spending almost every free moment tending to her.

Rose was staring to wonder if it was normal to be jealous of a ship.

But the Doctor came back every night and the two would jokingly discuss the type of home they would like to live in one day - doors, carpets, and a mortgage.

For fun, they looked at dream homes they knew they could never afford on their Torchwood salaries. They even started picking out paint colours and wood panelling.

It was a good sign, Rose thought. The Doctor had made it clear he was planning a future with her, and desperately wanted their relationship to progress.

Rose silently smiled at that.

By progress, of course, he had meant he wanted to be intimate with her without Jackie and Pete in close proximity. They had been intimate only four times in the last month for fear they would be caught by curious parents. And those four times had been when Pete and Jackie had taken a weekend holiday.

Rose would be lying if she said she didn't miss his attentions. She did, after all, greatly enjoy it when he checked her body's chemical makeup.

"Rose!"

Startled out of her thoughts, Rose spun around to see the Doctor racing excitedly through the front door – wearing a new blue pinstriped suit. He quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her along behind him. "I have something to show you!"

Unable to resist, she followed him into the backyard. He led her along the green grass for a few minutes before they finally came upon a Victorian-style mansion.

"Where did this come from?" Rose gasped, awe in her voice for what stood before her.

"You'll see," he replied cheerfully as he lifted her off her feet and carried her over the threshold.

When he finally put her down, Rose froze, eyes wide.

They stood in a large foyer with a vaulted carved ceiling. On the left was a mat for shoes and boots and an antique cherry wood table on which to place keys and purses. On the right was a walk-in coat closet. Several feet ahead was a lush staircase leading up, complete with a cherry wood banister.

All the things the two had imagined being in a home such as this.

"I'll show you upstairs in a bit," the Doctor grinned as he pulled her down the foyer into a cozy sitting room. It included an antique area rug over a wood floor, armchairs and a soft settee, a fireplace, and a large window covering most of the south wall, decorated with long ornate curtains.

The only thing out of place in the room was the TARDIS console that stood glowing green in the middle.

"Oh my god!" Rose gasped.

With a snap of the Doctor's fingers, the console turned into a carved wooden post that reached from ceiling to floor. It matched two other posts that had been placed at varying intervals in the room.

The Doctor grinned proudly. "I redesigned her. A bit of this and that and voila – a house! A fairly nice house, if I do say so myself."

"It's beautiful," Rose replied, her throat constricting. A worrisome thought came to her then, "But weren't you trying to fix her?"

The Doctor glanced at where the central column had been, "Well, she's barely travel worthy, Rose. She can hop short distances, but…" he took a deep breath. "She was traumatized by the Time War. She doesn't want to travel. Not now, anyway. Maybe at some point in the future. Who knows?"

"She's fine with the redesign then?" Rose asked.

"Oh yes. She's quite happy. Wants us to make this our home. Permanently."

Rose smiled, "Really?" He nodded. "I wish I could hug her."

"You can hug me, and I'll pass the message along," the Doctor replied as he pulled Rose into an embrace. Rose heard a gentle hum from the TARDIS in response.

The Doctor then took a step back and offered a hand, "Upstairs is where the bedrooms are but, if you don't mind… whatever we do in there will not be shared with the TARDIS."

Rose laughed and the two immediately rushed back to the foyer, racing up the stairs.

She stopped at the top and looked around. There were several rooms, but at the end of the hall stood double doors with intricate symbols carved in the dark wood. Rose put her hand on one of them. "What is this?"

"It's high Gallifreyan," he explained. "Our names, specifically. It's all very ceremonial. Usually done to honour a union between two Time Lords. Well… in our case, a Time Lord and a human."

Rose stared up at him, speechless. Did he just imply that he considered her his wife? Or the Gallifreyan equivalent, at least?

"Go on then," he eagerly indicated the door in front of them.

Rose swallowed the emotional lump in her throat and turned the handle, slowly pushing the door open. She stepped into the room and felt her jaw drop at the site before her.

The Doctor stood beside her, a bundle of suppressed energy as he rolled back and forth on the balls of his feet, hands deep in his pockets.

The look on his face made it clear he was rather proud of this room. It had an ornate King sized bed covered with a wine comforter, matching furniture done in the same cherry wood as the rest of the TARDIS interior, gold and red wallpaper, and a large Persian area rug.

The Doctor placed a hand on the West wall, and the panel slid away to reveal a walk in closet filled with pinstriped suits of varying colours – except brown, Rose noted.

"There's one on that side too," the Doctor indicated the East wall and she opened it to reveal her own walk in closet filled with all her favourite clothes.

Rose closed it and turned back to the Doctor, her eyes filling with tears as it finally hit her that he had done all this – he had created a home – for them.

She threw her arms around him with such enthusiasm that he ended up stumbling back and landing on the bed. "Happy then?" he asked.

Instead of answering, Rose brought her mouth down to his and pushed him back onto the mattress. She then proceeded to show him exactly how 'happy' she was for everything he had done.