Just a weird little idea of mine that I'm wondering if I should expand into a story. It's basically a pretty simple alternate universe thingy. Feedback?

"I'd run if I were you," said a dry voice behind her. Rose turned, and saw a woman in a white dress offering her hand. "Shall we be off?"

Rose glanced back at the approaching walking shop dummies. "Don't want to hang around here, that's for sure."

The stranger smiled. "Come on then."

They ran, hand in hand.

"Look, who are you?"

She smiles tightly. "I told you, I'm the Doctor."

"Yeah, but Doctor What?"

The smile stretches tighter. "Just the Doctor."

"Is that supposed to sound impressive?"

She appears to consider it for a moment. "Yes."

It's weird, but Rose has seen a lot of weird stuff by now and she doesn't inquire further.

"Oh, they just want to overthrow the human race and destroy you."

Rose stares, not sure if she's joking or not. She says such weird things, and smiles, and Rose can't for the life of her tell when the Doctor's being serious. "No."

"But you're still listening," the Doctor says, and smiles that eccentric smile. She walks a bit further down the pavement, but Rose is suddenly tired of the games.

"No, but really, Doctor," she says. "Tell me. Who are you?"

The Doctor stops, and turns, and suddenly it's like she's having an out-of-body experience, because she can see herself, a teenager in a hoodie and a fashionably ripped t-shirt, standing in a sunlit lane, so normal and small, but a few inches away from her feet the ground opens into a bottomless chasm.

Then the moment is gone, and the Doctor smiles a different sort of smile, and says, "I'm an alien. D'you want to see my spaceship?"

They've saved the day, and Rose is high on adrenaline. "You were useless in there, you'd be dead if it wasn't for me!"

"Yes," the Doctor says, simply. "I would. Although Mickey helped, a bit."

Rose glanced scornfully at her quivering boyfriend, who'd been overcome by the excitement. "That useless lump?"

The Doctor took a deep breath, and tucked her blond hair behind one ear. "I think perhaps... I owe you something."

"S'all right," Rose says cheerfully, and yet she finds herself involuntarily taking a step forward.

"I thought perhaps... you might like to come with me?"

Yes, Rose thinks, oh yes, yes. But... she pushes the thought away. "Is it always this dangerous?"

The gleeful smile. "Oh, yes."

"I can't," she says regretfully, giving in to the thought that's been badgering her, going on about responsibility and all that rot. "I've got to go and find my mum, and someone's got to look after the useless lump."

Mickey shot her a glare.

"But you can," says the Doctor, her gleeful grin widening. "You can do all that and come with me, too."

"What?"

The Doctor leans back against the blue wooden box that is so much more on the inside, and says, smugly, "Did I mention it can also travel in time?"

Rose swallows, her heart full of hope. "Don't think you did, no," she says, treating the Doctor to a grin of her own.

"Don't go," pleads Mickey.

Rose kisses him quite chastely on the cheek. "Thanks for nothing," she says, and runs through the open TARDIS door, hair streaming behind her. The Doctor grins at Mickey, and shuts the door. There is a sound like a dying hairdryer, and they are gone.

Mickey thinks about this a while.

Finally he says, "I think she's gay."

What do you guys think? Story-worthy? The TARDIS team would eventually include Rose, Martha, Donna, and Jack. There would be quite a bit of unresolved romantic tension, too. :D Because I read a couple of Romana/Rose stories over on Teaspoon and they were actually really good. O.o