AN: This chapter takes place right before the first chapter of Parched. Sorry for the confusing update schedule…Also, this one was written in response to all those people out there who have this rather naïve belief that Rose was some kind of "Virgin Rose" before she met the Doctor. I've read more than one fic where it's suggested Rose never slept with Jimmy or Mickey, so tha_t she can be ripe and virginal for the Doctor's plucking at some later date in the story (after they have been married in a church, of course). I find this offensive to the characters, to their relationships and to the overall credibility of the situation, and so in defiance of those writers, you got this chapter.


'You're not gonna go off on any adventures without me, are you?'


Rose turned around in a wobbly circle, trying to reach one hand up her back as far as possible to undo the laces of the corset. She forced herself to stand still, body angled across from the mirror in the wardrobe. It took some effort to crane her neck, trying to see if her fingers were any closer to getting to the knot at the top of the garment.

Although getting herself into the primitive torture device had been a lot harder, she was tired and clumsy and didn't want to fight to get out of her clothes. Right as she was about to give up, and either track down the Doctor to do it for her (and wouldn't that be a fun conversation!) or just sleep in the damn thing, she managed to get a finger hooked into the laces and pull.

The ties loosened, and the stuffy pressure that had encased her lungs the past few days released.

'Surprised I didn't pass out cos of this, with all the running we did,' she grumbled. She shimmied out of the thing and nudged it away with her feet. There had to be better clothes in the wardrobe. Things that would fit in with wherever the Doctor landed them and which didn't make her feet bleed or cramp her lungs.

Should maybe take him up on that offer to make me a perception filter, she mused, but dismissed it. Minute discomfort or not, she enjoyed dressing up. And the flowing white number she'd worn to the maiden voyage of the Titanic – the actual Titanic!had been gorgeous. She hoped she would get another chance to wear it one day.

Maybe they would one day return to Southampton and visit the Daniels' family, long after the sinking. She wondered if their housekeeper, Clara, would be there as well, since her employers hadn't boarded the doomed ship. Perhaps she would still go on to Cardiff as planned. Rose imagined Clara would be convinced to stay – it was better to have a sure job than face the uncertainty of a possible opportunity somewhere else; Rose knew that from experience.

Then again, Clara hadn't seemed like the type to fear uncertainty. Or very much of anything, despite her upbringing. She'd helped Rose deal with several ruffians trying to lure them into a dark alley. She'd also saved the Doctor from a frenzied vitavore with nothing more than an iron bedpan.

Whatever happens to her, hope she has a good life. I'm glad I got a chance to meet her. The Danielses too, even if they were a bit snobbish.

The opportunity to get to know famous people like Charles Dickens was an obvious advantage to travelling with the Doctor. But she appreciated being able to talk to ordinary, everyday people as well. Even if she was fast becoming aware of the fact that there was no such thing as an ordinary person.

Like Gwyneth, the servant girl from Cardiff they had met two weeks before, who had visions and who had saved them all in the end. Or Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North who had gone from a backbencher to a leader in the midst of a crisis and acted when the Doctor wouldn't.

Still, people not as all-encompassing as the Doctor were hard to come by. He commanded the attention and energy in a room full of people. As much as she liked the Doctor when he wasn't in one of his overly superior, critical moods, it was nice to have a few hours away from him. To hang around with someone closer to her level of energy and intellect.

She got the sense that the Doctor had never done anything mundane in his life. She bet he'd never had to work a tedious job just to get by and with little appreciation from his superiors. Clara had known, and Gwyneth too. They had been people that Rose related to – utterly ordinary, and yet capable if only given a chance.

Of course, Gwyneth's visions didn't exactly qualify as ordinary…

Her fingers slipped on the catch of jeans as she shivered.

It was weeks later, and Rose still couldn't help that reaction when she remembered the faraway look in the other girl's eyes. There wasn't anything in Rose's past that should have made Gwyneth look at her like that. It still occasionally made her wonder if the Welsh girl hadn't seen something in Rose's future. Especially late at night when she couldn't fall asleep.

Something in her future that was far from good.

She swallowed and shook her head.

Just being silly. If there were something bad going to happen, the Doctor would say, wouldn't he? I mean, he's a Time Lord, shouldn't he know the future or something like that?

It was a constant source of speculation as to what exactly a Time Lord did or could do. The name sounded pretentious, and she'd told him so. Though he had nothing in the way of modesty, he didn't brag about exactly what he could do either. She often felt like she was travelling with some kind of superhero who only decided to reveal his abilities to her as needed.

Or as he remembered them. Like he wasn't exactly sure what he was capable of and only thought to figure it out as he went. Which was both humbling and mildly alarming. Not only did it reminder her just how complex his brain was – and it would have to be, if he forgot even his own long list of impressive skills – but it also suggested to her that the Doctor could do anything.

Well, almost anything, she added, trying to lighten her thoughts. Pretty sure he's utterly incapable to land somewhere boring.

Well, that and trying to control the TARDIS.

Rose still wasn't completely sold on the living ship. But she'd have to be blind if she hadn't discovered that the TARDIS had a mind and will of her own.

All the same, it was a dangerous notion to have about a man, and she'd fallen into that trick with Jimmy.

What would happen when one day, it turned out there was something he couldn't do, and it got them killed?

Her stomach flipped uncomfortably at that, and she made herself put it out of her mind.

It wouldn't do to focus about things she had no control over. It would just tarnish an otherwise fantastic life with fear, and she'd wasted enough of hers already to want that. It was better to just assume he was able to do anything until then.

She reached for the jacket she'd worn on to the TARDIS and slung it over her arm to bring back to her room.

Then realised that there was something in the pocket.

She pulled it out with a frown.

And watched in disbelief, followed by embarrassed realisation, as she slowly extricated a strip of condoms.

'Oh my God!' she choked. 'I'm going to kill her!'

She shoved the offending object back into her hoodie and looked around, in case the Doctor happened to be lurking anywhere within the wardrobe. Not that he would, she'd never actually seen him in there, but still. She fumbled in her jeans for her superphone, checking to make sure it was still properly synced. The Doctor had showed her that she just had to go in and change the date and time manually before hitting speed dial.

There were two rings before the phone in the flat was picked up.

'Hello?' she heard her mother answer.

'Mum, what the hell were you thinking?' she demanded without even a greeting.

'Oh, now what've I done?' Jackie complained.

'Condoms in my pocket? Really?'

'Well, how'm I supposed to know if you're being safe? Can't bloody well control anything you do, that's obvious, but at least I'll have peace of mind knowing I did my best –'

'We're not sleeping together!' Rose cried. 'It's not like that, at all!'

'S'what you said about Mickey, too. If he wasn't such a bad liar, I'd've never known – '

'It's none of your business!'

'It's my business if you end up pregnant or laying alien baby eggs!'

'God, Mum, don't be disgusting – he's not – he doesn't – we're not – !'

Words were actively failing her now as she tried to figure out whether she wanted to laugh or yell some more.

'Might not be now, but I've seen the way you look at 'im,' her mother sniffed. 'Besides, he's alien, you never know if he might decide to do all sorts of… alien stuff. Wouldn't you rather be prepared so you don't end up with alien babies ripping out of your chest?'

'You've been watching bad science fiction movies, haven't you?'

'I'm just trying to understand your life, sweetheart!'

'That's not my life! And the Doctor and me, we're not shagging or thinking about shagging or anything else you can come up wif! We're mates – best mates – and that's it! Cor, Mickey and I haven't even broken up!'

'Wot, really?' Jackie asked, sounding stunned. 'Even after you being missing a year?'

All Rose's energy left her, and she sighed. 'Yeah. We just… haven't had time to talk.'

'And what was last night then?' her mother demanded.

Rose blinked, before she remembered that their perceptions of time were a little different. What had happened for her almost ten days ago had only happened for Jackie the night before.

On her last visit home, after Shareen had left, Mickey had turned up at the flat. He had said he heard the TARDIS landing. After ensuring the Doctor was nowhere in sight, he had accepted Jackie's invitation to stay for dinner.

Rose had spent the rest of that evening regaling them with everything she and the Doctor had done since she met him. She had skated over the more dangerous parts of the stories, of course, knowing neither her mother nor Mickey would appreciate the thrilling, riskier bits. Or the idea of her being in serious trouble.

Eventually Mickey had convinced Rose to head down to the pub with him. Jackie had wanted to protest, but when Rose promised she would spend the night in her own bed and still be around for breakfast the next morning, her mother relented.

It was understandable, really.

To them, she had been missing for a year because of a stupid mistake. While the Doctor had apologised to her and even Jackie, Rose knew she at least would probably be making it up to them for the rest of her life.

She hadn't even commented when Mickey led them the long way round to the pub or when he deliberately walked by the TARDIS. She supposed he was afraid she might run inside to invite the Doctor along. Or disappear with him again.

She had spent the whole night fielding questions from Mickey's football mates about where she was and assuring people that he hadn't murdered her. She'd gotten home at two in the morning and Jackie had been waiting for her. She'd insisted she was only up for a drink of water, but judging from the half-finished crossword and the muted telly, Rose suspected her mother had waited up.

In her calmer moments, Rose felt an overwhelming guilt at the entire situation. She would do anything in her power – short of leaving the Doctor, of course – to fix it for the two people she cared about most.

But right now, all she felt was exasperated.

Jackie's reproachful, judgemental questions as to her relationship with Mickey were one thing. Accusing her of shagging the Doctor, then supplying her with the sodding condoms was another thing entirely!

Condoms Rose was nauseatingly sure were left over from Jackie's own recent date with Billy Crewe.

'Not that it's any of your business, but there hasn't exactly been a good time to talk with Mickey! And whatever you think, me and the Doctor aren't shagging, are never going to shag, and even if we were it still wouldn't be any of your business!'

"I just don't want you to end up like Shareen, sweetheart! If you figure child support's hard to get when the bloke's on the same planet, can you imagine –'

'Bye Mum,' Rose cut her off, hanging up the phone.

Honestly, using Shareen as an excuse, she rolled her eyes. Guess it would be a bit stupid to tell her she'd got more to worry about from Mickey than the Doctor. Don't think the Doctor actually can

Her thoughts trailed off as something suddenly occurred to her.

Something that caused a whole new kind of panic. Not the angry, offended one that forced her to call her mother, but one that made the blood rush from her cheeks.

She stared down at the date on her phone again, carefully counting backwards from how long she and the Doctor had travelled together.

Her stomach swooped.

She should have gotten her period six days ago.

Since they had been in 1912 at the time, she was glad she hadn't. It would have been difficult enough to figure out how women of that time dealt with their monthly cycle. It would have been worse for her, considering how painful and debilitating hers tended to be.

Rose shuddered reflexively at the thought of having to suffer through primitive versions of sanitary napkins. Or worse, becoming a burden to the Doctor if she was unable to move from the pain.

She was going to have to figure something out for when it happened in the future, and it was a conversation she wasn't keen on having with him.

Of course, there are worse conversations to have, she thought with giddy dismay. Like the one I'll be having with him if…

She choked back a hysterical sob.

She had always been like clockwork except for one time, and she really hoped that this was just that. Another stress delay, another scare – because it was entirely and worryingly possible that she…

Well, she had been with Mickey, hadn't she? Barely a day or so before meeting the Doctor for the first time. It hadn't been anything special, just a quick shag in the morning and she hadn't even thought about it much until this moment.

It seemed so long ago.

A completely different lifetime ago.

What the hell am I supposed to do if I am?

Not only did she not have the money to raise a child, but she didn't exactly have the education to get a job that would offer a good life. She had vaguely entertained the idea of having kids one day – in that faraway, "someday" that people talked about without really having any solid idea of when it would be.

But only once she actually had something to offer a hypothetical child.

Right now, I've got nothing but a bronze in gymnastics, which won't give me much unless it's me dancing on a pole in my knickers…

Dread coiled in her stomach at that thought.

Despite how well Jackie had managed with her, she didn't want to follow in her footsteps. Seeing her mother struggle her whole life had instilled in her a deep-seated fear of that ever happening to her. She couldn't do something like this on her own.

Of course, Mickey would be thrilled.

Would likely bend over backwards to help out. It was exactly the sort of thing he had been waiting for after all. He was twenty-two – No, twenty-three. Missed a year, remember? – and had finished school, had a job and had been pining for a family of his own ever since his parents left him. It had gotten stronger after his gran died three years before and sometimes the way he looked at her made her a bit uncomfortable.

Like he saw her ten years older and with a toddler or two balanced on her hips.

But I'm not ready to be a mum yet!

It would hurt him so much if she said that though. Worse than the missing year, she'd reckon.

And if she talked about going to a clinic if… if they were…

It would hurt me too, she thought grimly. But I'd have to do something. And it's my choice in the end, right?

On top of all that, if she was pregnant, travelling with the Doctor would have a definite expiration date. Before, she had been hoping for anything from a gap year to… well, to the end of her life, if she was being her honest and naïve self. But if she were pregnant…

'Don't you dare make this place domestic,' he had said the first time he brought her home, and those words echoed ominously in her mind.

No, if, if she were she couldn't worry about the Doctor's place in this equation. Until she knew for sure and had made a choice for herself, it couldn't be about the Doctor or Mickey or anything else but the potential life inside her.

Even if she was blowing the entire thing out of proportion and freaking out over nothing.

She'd get go see the Doctor, tell him she was hungry. That she wanted to get some food somewhere modern. Somewhere that would have a chemist nearby where she might slip in and get a test.

To make sure.

No point to saying anything to anyone until she was sure.

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