"Stop watching me sleep," Rose groaned, a smile playing on her lips. She opened her eyes, and when the light cleared she saw the Doctor's black hair adorably spiked up on one side. A small giggle escaped her before she could stop it. "You look well-rested, for once. How did you sleep?"
The Doctor didn't know what to say. The night he had spent with Rose, his second in this parallel universe, was one of the best in his life (was it his life?) and for once, despite all he had been through and all he had lost, Rose had made him feel wholly, astonishingly alive. His eyes followed Rose's curves down the bed to her feet and smiled back at her. "Like a dream."
Rose admired his crooked smile. She knew he wasn't used to sleeping very much, but she could get used to seeing him like this, hair rumpled and sleep still lingering in his eyes. His lanky, yet still muscular, body was only half-covered by her comforter, and he was supporting his head on his arm.
Their short moment of intimacy was interrupted with a squeal of joy that gave them a fraction of a second's warning before 30 pounds of bouncing toddler leaped into their bed.
"Tony! I told you to knock before coming in here! Sorry, loves, he's a bundle of energy today." Jackie's hair was mussed and Pete still had his dressing robe on, but Tony had apparently been up for some time and had dressed himself before waking his parents up – he was comically mismatched but still cute. The trio finally left the bedroom, the Doctor and Rose suppressing a laugh at the adorable boy.
Rose rolled over on her stomach, propping her head up to look at the Doctor. "I want to get that TARDIS coral out of the zeppelin today, and maybe we can figure out how to get it to grow. Do you remember what Donna said about that? We don't exactly have thousands of years to wait."
"No, we don't." The Doctor laughed softly at that idea – before now, thousands of years seemed like nothing in his life span, but now he had but one life to live. "Since the TARDIS gets its power from the universe itself, I think all I have to do is introduce it to this universe's energy, tweak it a little bit, and hopefully it should take off growing. That reminds me," he sat up and furrowed his eyebrows, "does this Torchwood have alien technology just like the other one? I could really use it."
Rose nodded. "Yeah, lots of stuff. We can go by there today if you want to." She smiled and wiggled her legs like an eager child.
"Sounds like a plan," he said. He planted a quick kiss on Rose's forehead and leaped out of the bed, nearly tripping over his own feet to get to the closet. "I want to show you something. Go make some tea and I'll surprise you."
"What is it?"
"I told you, it's a surprise. Now out you get." He shooed her out of the bed and into the hall, practically giddy with excitement, and winked at her before closing the door.
Rose padded down the hall into the kitchen and readied the tea kettle, waiting for the Doctor to show her whatever it was he was hiding. So distracted she was, that she accidentally spooned salt into her tea instead of sugar, and she spit it out in surprise right when the Doctor rounded the corner. When she saw him, her jaw dropped and the salty cup of tea hit the floor.
Standing in the doorway to the kitchen was a man that Rose had known for years now, just as she remembered him. Leaning leisurely against the door frame was the Doctor, fully dressed in a brown and blue pinstripe suit, a blue paisley tie, a long light brown duster, and red Chuck Taylors. His hair was spiked on the top, and he had black-framed reading glasses perched high on his nose. Rose could barely breathe at the sight of him.
"You – you look… " Rose stuttered, trying to find the words, and her eyes welled up with tears. The Doctor rushed over to her, worried.
"I'm sorry, was this too much?" He was afraid it would remind her of the Time Lord, which could prove to be too painful for her. Rose shook her head.
"Not at all, I love it," Rose insisted, wiping a tear from her cheek and smiling. "Just like old times. All you need is a sonic, huh?" She gave a small laugh, and the Doctor dipped her into a kiss, quite literally sweeping her off of her feet.
::-::-::
"Just remember that these people haven't met you, and they're different than the ones back home. Oh, and there are more people than back home. You know about Gwen, and the other guy's name was Ianto. The other two are Tosh and Owen. There's no Jack here, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that." They both laughed at the truth of that last statement, and the large steel doors opened before them. "This," Rose gestured at the room in front of them, "is Torchwood."
The Doctor gazed around at all of the equipment and computers around him. "I thought Gwen and – what was his name, Ianto? – were in Cardiff."
"Yes, they were for a while, but they took over Torchwood London after the battle at Canary Wharf. They trained new people to work at Cardiff. What's the coral piece doing?" Rose pointed at the coral in the Doctor's hand – it was beginning to project a faint yellow glow.
