Rose spotted the Doctor in the crowded alien market nearly immediately. Amongst all the bright feathers and full gowns and large top hats, he stuck out as an alien amongst aliens. It did help that the crowd gave him a wide berth of space, which Rose didn't really blame them for. He was in his full Oncoming Storm mood. Leaning against the side of a shop, arms crossed, hunched over, legs crossed in all his leather and dark clothes glory. Rose, if she hadn't been travelling with him over a year now, would have switched to the other side of the street if she saw him.
Instead of giving him space, Rose slide up next to him and hugged his arm to her chest, grinning up at him. Besides a slight twitch of his lips and a noticeable drop in tension, he didn't make any move to acknowledge her.
"Jack found a nice feathered couple," Rose said conversationally. She grinned in triumph when the Doctor let out a half-annoyed huff. She rested her chin against his bicep, staring up at the Doctor and his rather nice profile. Rose was quite aware what the Doctor thought of himself, daft old face, oversized features- but she really thought he was handsome. It was an odd thing for her to realize, when she stopped thinking of him as merely her driver and mate and started to notice the exact shade of his eyes and the way those denim trousers hugged his bum. She had always been attracted to pretty boys, and the Doctor could never be considered pretty. Pretty, no. Attractive, handsome, beautiful- yes.
"He was s'pose to be keepin' an eye on ya." The Doctor grumbled, still not willing to relinquish his dour mood. Rose ignored the barb that she couldn't handle herself, she knew when he was trying to bait her since he did it so often, and instead turned her head and rested her cheek against the buttery softness of his leather jacket.
"He offered to let me join," Rose said offhandedly, as if she constantly was asked to join in an orgy. She felt the Doctor stiffen and then relax a second later, letting out a huff that was more laughter than anything. "So who are we glarin' at?"
"Dirty conman of a shopkeeper over there." The Doctor slipped right back into his bad mood, his whole body tensing and Rose laughed. "Not funny Rose! He has a part that only works in three kinds of ships, and all of them are decommissioned by this time. He's not likely to sell it to anyone else, so it's just gatherin' dust there!" The Doctor's voice darkened and his northern accent thickened until he started losing consonants and vowels by the end of his small rant.
"He's refusin' to sell it to you?" Rose asked, not thinking that was a very good way to do business.
"His askin' price is way too high!" The Doctor boomed back. Rose paused for a minute before laughing.
"Oh, you are so cheap, you are. You have all this money, but you refuse to pay for it because it's not the price you think it should be." Rose nudged her brooding alien, making him finally turn those glaring blue eyes on her. Rose had been privy to see a glimpse into the soldier the Doctor could be.
There use to be a young married couple who lived at the Estates when she was younger. The husband had been a soldier. Before the war he had brought his wife flowers every Friday, and chased off the rowdy blokes who got too handsy with Rose and the other girls. After the war though, something changed in him. He got dangerous, and Rose's mum warned her and Shireen and Keisha to stay away from him. Rose thought her mom was barmy, until he attacked his wife, thinking she was an enemy soldier, and then when he came to he had gone to the roof of the building and jumped off.
Sometimes she could see bits of that bloke in the Doctor, when his manic grin slipped and his real face came into view. It was in those moments that the Doctor appeared wholly alien, and completely terrifying, but Rose knew, though she couldn't name how, that if she flinched or showed fear in those moments the Doctor was likely to drop her back off at home and go back to his suicidal ways. Because that's what he was before she came along, suicidal. The Titanic and Pompeii, the Great Wars of Sandoo and the Destruction of Hans-Teldaga. And those were just the few she knew of, all places he knew he wasn't likely to walk out of again.
So when he glared at her, she knew she had nothing to fear, because she knew what he looked like when he was actually angry.
The dismal thoughts made her tug his arms apart so she could lace her fingers with his. He gave them up without a fight, he never struggled or pulled away when she wanted to hold his hand or hug him. She thought at first he was just a tactile person, like she was, but she learned quickly that he didn't really let anyone close enough to touch him. Just her.
"Want me to give it a go?" Rose asked, eyeing the portly little alien shopkeeper, who reminded her a bit of a walrus.
"Rose," The Doctor let out a long suffering sigh, pulling her attention back to him. His face clearly read 'if a brilliant alien such as meself couldn't do something, what makes you think a little stupid ape could?' Rose tilted her chin defiantly, and she watched his lips tilt upwards even as he rolled his eyes.
"Ten quid says I can get it."
"Only if you get it for 100 credits." The Doctor countered back. Rose saluted him, a bit sarcastically, and shot forward into the crowd.
Rose could have gotten the part in about five minutes if she really wanted too, but she was well aware of the Doctor's eyes on her. So she made a show of it, making him wait, testing his patience, seeing how long until he tempted to storm into the shop. The shopkeeper, while resembling a walrus, was pleasant and helpful. She managed to get her mum a pretty beaded bracelet and the part, all for under a 100 credits.
Rose emerged from the store and started to make her way back towards the Doctor, happily swinging her little bag. The Doctor was right where she left him, arms back to being crossed over his chest and glaring up a storm.
Rose couldn't even pretend she hadn't gotten the purchase, she just held up the bag and grinned at him. The Doctor stood up straighter and graced her with his manic grin, the one that said he was so proud of her, though she didn't think she had done anything too impressive. She bounded into his open arms and they hugged and laughed like they had saved a planet.
The Doctor with all his manic grins aimed at her, and his penchant for long hugs and handholding, and all his 'I could save the world, but lose you' statements, how could she not fall arse over elbows for him?
Rose woke to pain and light and sound and too much of everything, while simultaneously nothing. She knew her name, but not where she was or how she had gotten there or why she was in so much pain. Everything hurt, but she couldn't move a muscle. It was equal parts too bright and too dark, her overworked eyes shooting pain directly into her skull, which was throbbing already. Something was making an awful lot of noise, but her ears seemed to have a bubble around them.
Suddenly that bubble popped and if she had any control over her body she would have curled up into a ball and sobbed.
"Doctor!" A voice was screaming, whether female or male Rose couldn't identify.
"What are you yelling about?" Another, deeper and grumpier voice yelled back. "Oh."
"Yeah, oh, thought you'd like to know she appeared out of nowhere, but if you'd like to go back to your tea that's fine, go on, scamper." The voice was distinctively female, and Rose could make out a northern accent. The sound still made her want to cry because it was drilling a hole through her skull.
"Get her to med bay." A third voice spoke up, so familiar but different. Different then she remembered? Rose's head pounded harder and she whimpered.
"Is that what I do now?" This one was male, definitely male, and surprisingly Scottish. She didn't know why that was surprising. "Hold on you, I have to-" Rose was lifted off the ground, but it was too much and the blackness that had been swimming on the edges of her vision overtook everything.
"I'm really sick of passin' out." Rose grumbled, her words slurring together. She knew she ought to keep quiet, let herself adjust. If dimension travelling with a glorified canon had taught her anything it was to allow her body to adjust and not start moving or speaking right away. But that statement felt like it needed to be said, even if it was barely understandable with her thickened cockney accent twisting the words.
"Don't move too much, yeah?" There was that northern female accent again. Rose took a deep breath, which hurt, and then she opened her eyes and blinked in surprise at the dimness of the room. It was the TARDIS med bay, even though it had changed, but she knew that soft humming in her mind.
"Who're you?" Rose slurred, smacking her lips together and making a face because her mouth tasted fuzzy and altogether, this seemed like wholly unpleasant experience.
"Clara, Clara Oswin Oswald, wait- I don't know why I told you my whole name. Bit formal, that. Sorry, I'm babblin', just not every day you met- you." If Rose had been feeling any better she would have laughed, but that took too much energy so she just peered at the girl instead.
"Not every day you meet me? What's that mean?" Rose questioned, eye brows raised as her eyes focused enough to study the girl. She was pretty, actually she was rather gorgeous and adorable and apparently from the north, which was a plus in Rose's book. Clara Oswin Oswald had shoulder length straight brown hair, a lovely heart shaped face, and an attitude that meant she could be no other than the Doctor's new companion.
"I didn't say that, I did not say that." Clara glanced over her shoulder, looking a bit pained. Rose glanced over her shoulder and with a soft hum in her brain, she knew that the Doctor was listening in.
"Is that the Doctor out there? Skulkin' 'round?" Rose asked, attempting to tease him out of hiding.
"I do not skulk, Time Lords do not skulk, and look at me, do I look like a skulking man?" The Scottish voice fit this new man. He stood in the door way, his hands buried in his pockets, which was an old habit that seemed to carry with each new regeneration.
"Actually, this you kind of does." Clara answered, making Rose smile.
"Wasn't talking to you."
"Oi, rude!" Rose piped up.
"He is a bit, isn't he?" Clara asked, her eyes slightly narrowed. Rose knew that look, knew it hadn't been too long since the Doctor had regenerated, and Clara had been there to witness it.
"He's always rude, this is the fourth him I've known and rude, each and every one of 'em." Rose tried to push herself up, not enjoying laying down when this conversation was happening, but her vision swam and she slammed back onto the med bay bed with a groan.
"Maybe you just think I'm rude because I'm not a stupid pretty boy anymore." The Doctor was hovering in front of her, brows furrowed, a deep frown marring his features. Rose liked the accent, and she couldn't help but wonder if she was here with him, an older version of her.
"You're callin' yourself stupid?" Rose asked, though she sounded a bit breathless. It was then that she realized she couldn't seem to get enough oxygen into her lungs. She gripped for the Doctor but he pushed her hands away and placed a mask over her face.
"I'm calling my vainness of my youth stupid." The Doctor corrected, his long fingers pressing the mask against her face as his other hand pressed down her sternum, until her lungs expanded and she was able to breathe properly again.
"You think the last you was pretty?" Clara asked, though her face showed deep concern. More concern than a girl should show for another woman, whom she supposedly just met. But Clara was the Doctor's companion now, and she had stayed with him through a regeneration, so she was good at masking her panic.
The Doctor opened his mouth, and judging from the twist of his features he was about to say something very rude, but Rose's fingers had reached up, nearly of their own accord, and she was tracing the lines of his face. He was old, even older than her first Doctor, beat him by nearly a decade if she was to guess. Blue eyes with salt and pepper hair that was more salt than pepper, and a nearly all black wardrobe with a Scottish accent of all things. She wondered if she were to tease him about his accent this time if he would go on the defense again.
"All planets have a Scotland!" Nah, didn't really have the same ring to it.
"Hullo." Rose said, though the oxygen mask garbled the word a bit, she still smiled around the fatigue and the pain as her fingers traced one of his eye brows.
"They are attack eye brows, aren't they Rose? You noticed, could cut glass with them." He raised them up and down, making Rose's hand fall away and she laughed. She caught just a glimpse of utter glee in those blue eyes before he was leaning away. "No, no, no, get out!"
"Rude, and not ginger. Once again." A teasing female voice said from the hallway before she breezed in. Rose finally understood why the voice had sounded familiar, but not, because she had really never heard her own voice projected at herself. She had lost some of the London accent, but it was still there, teasing the consonants of her words just as she teased the alien man beside her younger self's bed.
"So I am here." Rose felt her body relax.
"Oh no, please don't listen to me, just got over a thousand years of time travel knowledge and the only one in the multiverse with a sense for time, but please, go on ahead and cause a giant paradox." The Doctor shot both Rose's a dark look. "Again. Maybe the reapers will actually do a solid job this time and I won't come back."
"He thinks because he's Scottish now he has a reason to whinge all the time." The older Rose said, leaning against the door with a grin that showed she wasn't the least bit bothered by him. She actually looked older, though that didn't say much besides the point that she hadn't been seriously injured recently to active the Bad Wolf into healing her. She looked mid-thirties, and if she was allowed to admit this, she looked good. Her hair was a lot longer now, and held a gentle curl with a softer blonde color.
"If you two are done, she should get back to the younger version of me about now." The Doctor was glaring at the older Rose, but she just smiled back at him.
"Yes, you were beside yourself with worry." She teased him again.
"I was not! Though, you should tell that pointy chin boy that he should take better care of you." Rose was having a hard time keeping her eyes open, and she realized a moment too late that the Doctor had given her more than oxygen with the mask. She tried to give him a good accusing look, but then the older version of herself slipped up beside him, intertwining her fingers with his and placed a soft kiss on the older-looking Doctor's cheek. The Doctor's 'attack eye brows' stayed furrowed, but the corner of his mouth twitched and he gave the younger Rose a wink.
Rose, the younger one, got a good look at Clara's exasperated face before slipping into darkness once again.
"Rose! Ah- you see, I was just- came in here to-" The Doctor began to babble nearly the instant Rose had walked into her fathers study, but Rose hardly paid any mind to his gob as she toed off her high heels before curling up on the small couch beside the Doctor. "Ah." He trailed off smartly, his whole body tense, as if still waiting for her disapproval for hiding away in a study while the party continued on downstairs. Once he realized he was in no real danger, his body relaxed, melting around her and pulling her closer simultaneously.
Rose let out a small breath of air as she played with the buttons on the Doctor's tuxedo jacket.
"'m sorry about these parties." Rose finally admitted, her legs curled up underneath her, though the position was slightly uncomfortable due to her red dress. Formal dresses weren't really meant for cuddling on couches.
"I thought you liked them?" The Doctor asked, his voice a gentle hum above her. She looked up at him, noting the look of content on his face before it was placed by confusion at the look she shot him. "No? You always seem to enjoy yourself."
"Well, yeah, interestin' people and all, but a big formal party once a week? Bit much, even for me." Rose licked her lips and she watched with barely concealed amusement as the Doctor's eyes zeroed in on that little bit of pink. "Between Torchwood, these parties, and you gatherin' stuff for the TARDIS coral we hardly have seen each other." Rose found herself confessing, and she played with her earring as a nervous habit. He had said the words to her that she had so willingly been able to tell him on the beach in Norway, and he had stayed with her at her small flat, but sometimes old habits die hard. She was still not use to letting her true emotions about the Doctor spew forth from her mouth.
"We could, that is if you want, we could go together?" The Doctor tugged on his ear before leaning closer to Rose, he was suddenly very animated. "There's some soil that I think will have just the right composite to really help the TARDIS grow a bit faster, not only faster, but she'll be strong. Just a bit of jiggery pokery with the soil and BAM! She'll be fully formed in no time."
"Soil?" Rose asked dubiously, but she was already making a packing list in her mind. She'd need time off, if she suddenly just left Torchwood might go out and find her, which would ruin their whole fun.
"The world, this world and our old world's, tallest tree is the coast redwood. It's one of the three sequoia tree species, all of which grow spectacularly big, but the coast redwood can grow up to 20 meters, Rose! That's 60 feet taller than the giant sequoia. Now don't give me that look, I don't know why they didn't name the largest tree the giant sequoia and the giant sequoia the not-so-giant-but-still-adequately-big sequoia, doesn't really matter." The Doctor lectured excitedly.
"And you want to gather some of the soil these redwoods grow in, and grow the TARDIS in it?" Rose questioned, a grin planted on her face. She had no idea where these redwoods were, but she knew nothing like that existed in Great Britain, so they'd at least be able to get away from the island for a bit.
"Yes, amongst other soils. There's a tree, a giant sequoia actually, that they named General Sherman, and they call it the 'largest living thing on the planet'. How lovely is that? He's over 100 feet wide around the bottom. And can you guess where these trees are, Rose?" His eyes were positively sparkling now. Rose thought over the bits of information she had already been given.
"You said it's called the coast redwood, so somewhere on a coast? You told me once that the TARDIS needed a dry place, so probably not South America or anywhere like the Amazon." Rose chewed her lip, trying to think of other coastal regions. There was Canada, but that seemed too cold of a place. "On the coast of the States?" Rose guessed and was rewarded with a positively beaming Doctor.
"California."
"We're goin' to California?" Rose had visited the States a couple times. The first time was in her original world, with a different Doctor, but mostly she had just seen a basement of a compound in Utah. Then there had been watching Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in 1863, but she hadn't gotten to see much of the area before a lost alien that resembled a mix between a rhino and dragon trampled through the town and the Doctor and Rose had to gather him up in the TARDIS to take him back home. She had spent quite a bit of time with the States version of Torchwood when building the dimensional canon, but that was mostly in an underground facility in Nebraska.
"If you'd like." The Doctor offered, sounding nervous again as he ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up in a way Rose quite adored.
"We're goin' to California!" Rose leaped into the Doctor's waiting arms and they both fell off the couch laughing.
Rose woke to a buzzing in her head and a beeping near her ear. She groaned and tried to push away the noises, wanting to go back to her dream. Or more accurately, her memory. They had gone to California, spent near two weeks exploring the coast. Just them, together, travelling and laughing and getting into spots of trouble. Then her mum had called, made them go back to London for a party. Then her half-human Doctor had been wiped from existence, along with him the TARDIS coral and any proof that she had even gone to California.
Rose did not want to think about that last bit, she just wanted to go back to sleep and remember snogging the Doctor on the floor between bits of planning their trip and laughter and light teasing. She did not want to deal with a heavy buzzing in her head and a loud beeping in her ear with too bright lights and her body aching with something more than just plain fatigue.
"Fuckin' stop it!" Rose shouted, unable to stop herself as she gave herself over to frustration and anger. As quickly as those volatile emotions had boiled up, they were gone, and she was left with an empty hollowness that was being quickly replaced by guilt for yelling at the time ship.
Then the bed collapsed from underneath her, tucking itself neatly into the wall and she was left sprawled out on the med bay floor, gasping for breath. Rose could feel the time ships own anger disappear as tears filled cognac colored eyes. Rose sat up with a wince, and wiped tiredly at her face.
"I know, 'm sorry too." Rose whispered, staring at the small metal heart that had been the only thing keeping her from being erased from this world. It looked broken and fried, just as it had been when she first had seen it in the Doctor's hand. There was a small, hesitant hum inside her brain and Rose pushed to her feet.
She knew the TARDIS would not have woken her up for nothing. Actually, Rose could feel worry replacing fatigue as she half-walked, half-stumbled down the corridor. The only reason the TARDIS would have interrupted her much needed rest was because the Doctor was losing it. Rose had no idea what the Doctor had gone through before the universe had tried to erase her, except that he had apparently married River Song. The thought still made Rose's stomach twist painfully.
Rose could already hear yelling from the console room. A distinctively female Scottish voice, enraged, but underneath that, confused and hurt. A soft male British voice, consoling, but underneath that, anger. A third female British voice, a mixture of both frustration and confusion. Rose picked up her pace because she did not hear a fourth voice, the Doctor's voice. Everything was fine until the Doctor went silent, that was when he was truly angry, and this regeneration did not handle anger in any healthy way.
So Rose pushed herself, even though she had already reached her limits days earlier. She couldn't remember the last time she had a proper sleep, let alone a real meal, but this was the Doctor, and he was hurting. If there was anything she could do, she'd do it. Even if that meant pushing herself past her breaking point, because after all, it's the same he'd do for her.
"I don't understand why you're taking us home, everything's fine now! We fixed it all!" Amy's voice shouted above everyone else.
"Amy, please, it's alright." Rory's voice was soft and soothing, but his fiery wife just ignored him and continued yelling at the Doctor.
"Sweetie, I know you're prone to overreacting, but even this is a bit much." River Song's voice teased. Rose walked out of the corridor and stood at the top of the stairs. The three companions surrounded the Doctor's as he continued to push buttons on the console without any of his usual explosive energy.
"You can't do this!" Amy shouted.
"This, Amelia Pond, is my TARDIS, and if I want to take you home and never come back, then that is what I will and am perfectly capable of doing." The Doctor had rounded on Amy, and Rose watched Rory's back straighten as he stood at Amy's back, ready to defend his wife it need be. Rose thought it was probably a good time to intervene before the Doctor started to become truly cruel.
"Doctor?" Rose spoke up, cringing at her own voice. It was raspy, as if she were getting over a particularly bad cold. As soon as Rose acknowledged that, she suddenly did feel quite stuffed up. She wrinkled her nose at the unpleasantness of nearly being erased from the universe, before her heart gave a painful squeeze.
Had it been like that for the half-human Doctor? She had been fully aware of what was happening, she had existed even as she was wiped out.
"Rose." Her name was breathed out in a ragged gasp before she was enveloped in a tight hug. His nose found the sensitive spot behind her ear and he took in a deep breath, as Rose wound her arms around his middle, not realizing until that moment just how much she needed that hug.
It had been a tough couple days in Cardiff, even before the universe tried to erase her. She had very nearly lost several people she had grown to care about, some of her only friends in the universe. It was then that she realized, fully came to the realization that she would most likely see each and every one of their deaths, and she'd very likely still look the same. Her, Jack, and the Doctor were now all in the same boat, but Jack and the Doctor had a couple centuries on her, they had already come to that realization a long while back, but it was new to Rose.
Then she had been roughly reminded about what her Doctor, the meta-crisis version, had gone through except he hadn't had a mad alien to save him. Just her, a too-slow, not-quite-human stupid ape who had slept through him disappearing.
Now there seemed to be yelling and anger, real true anger from everyone, and she hadn't a clue what was going on. But she had the Doctor's arms wrapped around her, holding her like she was something special, and all that other stuff faded into the background.
"I thought I had lost you." The Doctor breathed against her neck, making her whole body ache and tremble. Her arms tightened around him, at the despair coating his tone as he buried his face into the place where her neck met her shoulder. Rose lightly treaded her fingers through the soft strands of his hair. "I thought I had lost you, again." He shifted against her, moving so he could stare down at her and Rose completely froze.
Rose didn't pretend to know every aspect of the Doctor. She knew him, knew him better than most, but a lot remained a mystery. Like his name and actual age or who his first kiss was and did the title 'Doctor' mean the same on his home world as it did on hers? But Rose would have bet her right arm that the Doctor was going to kiss her.
Not just a small, chaste kiss either. He looked ready to push her up against the nearest wall and ravage her. Rose had never seen that look in his eyes before, and her heart pounded faster in her chest, her fingers twisting in the fabric of his button up as she unconsciously titled her face up towards him.
"See? She's fine, sweetie." It was a bucket of ice water over the top of their heads. Rose's hands dropped and the Doctor took a step back. Gone was the passion from his eyes, replaced now with- fury? Rose decided to intervene before he could become cruel, which any of the Doctor's were prone to do when they got angry.
"Can someone explain to me what's goin' on?" Rose asked, her fatigue coming back to her full force as she turned from the Doctor to look at his companions. Her heart was still beating quickly away inside her chest, her body still warm from the look the Doctor gave her, but she needed to concentrate on the problem at hand. So she put her back towards the Doctor, not expecting any sort of real answer from him anyways, but she reached back blindly, and his fingers entwined with hers nearly instantly.
"We saved his life, and he's angry because it wasn't his idea!" Amy shouted, throwing her arms up in exasperation. Rose did admit that it did sound like something the Doctor would do, but that usually didn't drive him to the point where he became so angry he became nasty, past the point of his regular rudeness.
Rose felt the Doctor take a step forward, but she pushed her back against his front in a silent plea for him to remain quiet. Rose didn't want the fiery redhead to be hurt and she did not want to deal with the Doctor's guilt over hurting his best friend. She needed the story from the most unbiased person in the room. So she looked at Rory with hope.
"The Doctor invited us all to his own death," Rory said, biting out the words before taking a deep breath and looking away. "They- those Silence people- they stuck River in a machine, and was going to make sure she killed the Doctor. Except she didn't."
"She created a massive paradox, ripping a hole in the very fabric of time." The Doctor said in a low, dangerous tone, his body nearly vibrating behind Rose.
"To slow the rapid decay of the universe, it started erasin' things. Places, people-"
"Time itself. Same time of day, same day- over and over again. Time had stopped." The Doctor agreed, sounding a bit proud of Rose's conclusion despite his rage. Rose didn't have the heart to tell him that she only knew that because the universe had attempted to erase her, though she knew that conversation had to happen. They were in a circular paradox right then. She was only standing there because a future version of her Doctor had gone back to save her.
"I couldn't let you die." River argued, and Rose felt the push of the Doctor's body against hers, as if he was about to sweep down on River at any time.
"Yes you could have, and you should have!" The Doctor roared. Rose winced at the shout in her ear, and the Doctor stepped back, breaking all contact with the blonde. "You should have let me die, because my death was a fixed point in time. You cannot mess with a fixed point in time, River Song, you know that very well."
"I'm sorry sweetie, but you're wrong. You're much too important to lose." River said softly, as if speaking to a child. Rose chanced a look at the Doctor, and she registered the shock on his face before seeing guilt in those ancient green eyes of his.
"Not more important than the universe. It wouldn't have mattered if you saved me, this universe would have collapsed in on itself. Everything would be gone, including me, in the end. You'd have killed an entire universe, and for what? Some childish dream that-"
"Doctor." Rose broke in before he could hurt River more, or before Amy or Rory could intervene on their daughter's behalf. The Doctor turned those ancient eyes on her, and she felt the mad energy of him solely focused on her. The Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Worlds- all those titles displayed in one look.
Rose thought she might have gone a little crazy with all she had seen and been through, because instead of high tailing it out of there like any sane person would have done, she just wanted to hug him. Some of that softness inside of her must have showed because the Bringer of Darkness disappeared and he was just the Doctor again. Goofy, baby giraffe, centuries year old alien who looked more tired than angry now.
"We've been looking for you for a week now." Rory spoke up, forcing Rose's eyes away from the Doctor.
"A week?" Rose asked, but then shook her head because time wasn't really relative to her anymore. "Wait, how did you get time to reset itself? You're not dead and the universe seems alright."
"We were married, by Gallifreyan standards." River spoke up. Rose stared down at the woman, and she realized for the first time that it wasn't Doctor River Song, or even Professor River Song she was talking to. This River Song was newly regenerated, she was a lot younger than she looked, and she hadn't been out of the hands of the Silence for very long.
It would have been easy to crush this River Song. A couple words, a simple look, and that's all it would take. Rose knew her 19 year old self, fresh off the Estates, would not have hesitated in the way she did now. It wasn't that her younger self was cruel, not by any stretch, but she was defensive and she hated people looking down at her, like River clearly did now. Rose liked the woman when she became Doctor River Song. She was clever and cheeky and she didn't take anyone's shite, and Rose didn't want to risk her future friendship with the other woman in a moment of jealousy and anger.
Because Rose understood where River was coming from, she really did. River was ripped from her parents by a religious organization hell bent on destroying the Doctor. Rose had no idea what had been done to River, or what they had told her, but her entire existence revolved around the Doctor from her very conception. River never had a chance to be a kid, never had a childhood or a rebellious phase. She had guns and seduction training. They took a little girl and they made her into a weapon, not even a person, just a thing they directed in the Doctors area and they waited.
But River Song had fought past that, and she was still fighting it now. She was raised to kill the Doctor and she ended up madly in love with him. Then Rose had blundered in and everything went pear shaped.
"Someone will later explain to me how that allowed the universe to reset itself, but for now I need to see Jack." Rose turned towards the surprised Doctor. "You said it yourself, the universe erased anything non essential outside of London, and it started with anomalies, such as Jack."
"And you," The Doctor spoke softly, taking a step towards her and reaching up. With swift fingers he moved aside the collar of her blouse. Rose didn't need to look down to know that she had some pretty impressive bruises right below her clavicle, where the machine had been attached to her.
"I need to see him, to make sure he's okay." Rose said, trying to ignore how her heart picked up the pace when the Doctor neared her, a softness in his eyes that she couldn't quite decipher.
"He was the first person I visited when we went looking for you." The Doctor cupped her face gently, and Rose's eyes automatically closed as she leaned into his touch. "He said the cloister bells started to go off in the TARDIS, and you two took off running. You made it into the TARDIS before it just disappeared, and not in the way my ship is meant to disappear. None of his team could even remember you existed."
"I'm okay." Rose opened her eyes and spoke firmly, because the Doctor was looking at her like he had when she had told him she would stay with him forever. Like she was running on borrowed time, like she was about to die and didn't even know it yet. "You came and saved me. Well you and the Bad Wolf and the TARDIS. It was a group effort, and I mean that in every way possible." Rose's grin turned wolfish as she fingered the lapels of his jacket, thinking of the multi-colored, multi-patterned one he had worn when he had curly blonde hair. Blonde hair! The thought made Rose laugh, which felt rusty, but good at the same time.
"Rose?" The Doctor questioned her, looking curious and confused, but that cold fury had been driven away by her gleeful thoughts of his past regenerations.
"Not to break up this little moment, but are you still going to drop us off back on Earth?" Amy asked, arms crossed and standing directly behind them now. Rose felt her cheeks burning as she turned around to see the Doctor's three companions standing behind them. Amy looked furious, Rory exasperated, and River- oh River looked hurt.
"Yes, thank you for reminding me Pond!" The Doctor took off down the stairs and starting bounding around the console.
"Doctor, please-"
"No River, you are going back to where you belong. You nearly destroyed an entire universe without a shred of guilt." The Doctor was carefully not looking at River.
"She did it for you! We all did it for you!" Amy bellowed.
"And don't you see that's exactly why you need to go back?" The Doctor yelled back. "I can't have my companions thinking they can make those types of decisions for me."
"You make those kinds of decisions for us all the time," Amy countered, following the tweed covered alien around the console. He stopped suddenly, making Amy slam right into him as he turned around to her.
"Because, Amelia Pond, I am in the better position to make more informed decisions than any of you lot. I know you look at me, point chin, silly bow-tie wearing mad alien with a space-and-time ship and all you see is your imaginary friend from childhood and your best friend from adulthood, but you forget what I am. I am a Time Lord, the last of my kind, over a millennium, and for the majority of that I have been travelling. Sometimes with other people, sometimes not. I have survived for over 900 years without you, and I will do fine after you leave." The Doctor ground out. Amy's face had lost all color, and the pale girl didn't have much color to lose in the first place. Rory looked particularly livid, so Rose stepped in before anything more hurtful could be said.
"Amy, he can see the strands of time. He knows exactly how each decision will effect everything around it, and he can better make decisions because of that. Time Lord isn't just a pretentious name they gave themselves, it actually means what he is." Rose intervened softly.
"Yes, right, I knew what I was doing on that beach, and I needed you lot to trust me enough to let me do what needed to be done. You didn't, so it's off back home with you." The Doctor started to pull levers, until Rory snorted.
"That's rich, coming from you, speaking about trust. You don't trust anyone." The Doctor shot a quick look over to Rose before clearing his throat.
"We were married, Doctor." River spoke up finally. The Doctor turned to her, backing up when he realized how close she had gotten and knocked right into Amy.
"In an abandoned timeline, where I wasn't even me! It was a suit controlled by little men that looked like me. And I wouldn't have had to go that far if you'd just had let me fix it." The Doctor scowled. Rose sighed and rubbed her throbbing temple.
"Do you want me to have a look at those?" Rory asked quietly from beside her, motioning to her chest.
"No, ta though. The Doctor looked them over, they don't even really hurt- and they look like they've already healed by a couple days. Not this Doctor," Rose amended after Rory's confused look. "A future one, he's regenerated."
"Better than this one?" Rory asked, only half-serious.
"Ruder, if possible." Rory and Rose shared a small laugh before their attention was pulled back to the serious situation at hand.
"We were trying to save you." Amy was arguing again.
"By destroying the entire universe?" And the Doctor was back to yelling.
"Oh stop it, you're not even mad about that bit, you'd have forgiven that because it's fine now, it's fixed. It's because of her that you're dumping us all off." Amy shot back, nodding over in Rose's direction. Rose froze and heard Rory sigh next to her.
"Amy, don't bring Rose into this, she hasn't done anything, she wasn't even a part of all of this." Rory tried, which was really the wrong way to go, though Rose appreciated the sentiment.
And suddenly everyone was yelling at once. Rose suddenly regretted her decision to interrupt; she should have let the Doctor be characteristically rude. Amy, Rory, and River were clearly all use to it, and given time they'd forgive him for whatever he had said. It wasn't like her to just stand back, but she was so tired now, and somehow all this mess had come up her fault. She didn't want to feel bad for River Song, she didn't want to be hurt over Amy's rejection, and she didn't want poor Rory getting caught up in the middle.
Rose stepped back until the back of her thighs hit the jumper seat, and she sat down on it with some relief. Rose watched and listened to them shout and argue, but ultimately the Doctor won out. Of course he had to promise, swear up and down on everything he loved, that he would be back in a weeks time. An Earth-relative weeks time too, none of his 'alien nonsense' as Amy so eloquently put it.
"I guess I should be congratulatin' you." Rose spoke up once they were back in the vortex, and alone in the console room.
"Rose," The Doctor wrung his hands out in front of him.
"It may have just been the means to an end for you, a way to set the universe right, but it wasn't to River and you were bein' particularly cruel to her." Rose said, her voice coming out a bit more clipped and colder than she had meant it to. But then again, she was a bit hurt too. The Doctor took up a defensive posture near the console.
"Just like you, Rose Tyler, defending a woman who doesn't care about you at all." That hurt, and the Doctor knew it, but he wasn't about to apologize and Rose wasn't about to back down.
"Of course she doesn't, she's a bloody psychopath!" Rose rubbed her temples and suddenly all her anger drained out of her, leaving her feeling tired and hurt. Physically hurt, yes, her whole body ached, but she was mentally and emotionally spent too. Her eyes burned with unshed tears that she refused to let the Doctor see, let alone let them fall. "She was taken from her family and raised to be a weapon and because they wrapped her so wonderfully around your own time line you couldn't go back and help her without causing a massive paradox. So you found her, but the damage is already done, and she loves you and hates herself. Someday she'll become brilliant Professor Song, and after that an even more brilliant Doctor Song, and she'll be fierce and independent and so undeniably clever, but right now she's just a lost little girl who needed you to be her hero, and you crushed her."
Rose took a deep breath and looked up at the bright, rounded ceiling of the TARDIS console room, so far up above her. A spiraling staircase winding its way to the top levels. She let the old girls soothing hum wrap around her exhausted mind, and admitted to something she had been trying to keep very close to her chest.
"I love you Doctor, so I really understand how she feels about you, I truly do. I have loved you when you were northern and insultin' and so unbelievably sad, I couldn't understand, not back then, how someone so completely amazin' could be so incredibly sad. And I missed him, that version of you so much, because you changed and you became flirty and so secretive, and you abandoned me for French mistresses, but I still loved you because you made me laugh and you made me feel special. I loved you when you were half human with a bit of Donna Noble in there, and his obsession with those horrible rag magazines and how he would disappear for a week then show up, covered in dirt and cuts and then drag me to whatever brilliant thing he found. Doctor- I think I'd even love you even if you regenerated into an old bloke with gray hair and a Scottish accent." Rose couldn't help but smile at this.
"And now, Rose Tyler?" The Doctor had moved closer during her speech, her confession, and was so close she could reach out and brush her fingers against the buttons on his jacket.
"Does it matter?" Rose asked, heart in her eyes as she looked up at him. "Did it ever matter?" She couldn't help but whisper the last question, not knowing if she really wanted an answer. Rose knew what would come next, avoidance, and she was feeling far too vulnerable to let him be the one initiating it, so she took that step instead. "We have to go back to Torchwood."
"What?" The Doctor looked confused, his constant moves stilling, before he rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion. "I told you, Jacks just fine."
"I was more talking about Owen." Rose said, wiping quickly at her eyes as the Doctor turned away from her and back to the console.
"Oh yes, him." The Doctor sighed. "Alright, alright. I'll go see what I can do for him, but you're not coming."
"Excuse me?" Rose asked, feeling a bit of anger well up.
"Rose," The Doctor turned to her after a jarring landing. "You're exhausted, you're likely to make yourself extremely ill if you continue on like this. You need rest. I will go see what I can do for Owen Cooper- no Rose, no arguing. It'll be a lot of testing, drawing blood, taking x-rays, getting a hold of whatever bloody machine Jack used to reanimate him, testing that, x-raying that. There is no need for you to run yourself into the ground for this." Rose stared at the Doctor for a long time, but he was clearly set in this, and Rose didn't feel much up to arguing.
"Fine, but if anything happens." Rose gave him a warning look before slipping off of her seat and shuffling her way down the corridor to her room.
Rose thought her mind wouldn't allow her an ounce of sleep after the confession she had just made to the Doctor, but she was asleep even before she had gotten fully settled in bed.
DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW
"Hullo Jack," Rose said around her giggling when she woke up to find Jack nearly crushing her to himself in her bed. Rose shifted a bit, getting into a better position before letting out a contented noise and settling against Jack.
"Mornin' Rose." Jack greeted back, but something in his tone made Rose draw back and look at him.
"Did somethin' happen with Owen?" Rose asked worriedly, soothingly brushing Jack's longer-than-normal hair off of his forehead. He didn't even have any product in it.
"The Doctor, well he couldn't fix him properly, make him the way he was before, but he made him better. Made it so he could feel and heal and all that." Jack hedged, closing his eyes and letting Rose mother him a bit. Rose could see guilt all over his handsome face.
"Poor Jack, you had to put up with two rude Doctors for who knows how long." Rose cooed, knowing better than to try and push Jack into telling her what was wrong, and clearly something was very wrong.
"Something else happened Rosie, something bad. Everyone's- well, they are fine for the most part. Alive, but I won't be going back to Torchwood. I was thinking about travelling again." Jack admitted softly, his arms tightening around her and Rose made a soft noise as she cuddled him gently.
"You're goin' to come with me and the Doctor?" Rose asked excitedly, letting it show in her tone just how much that would please her. She felt Jack smile against her throat. Rose felt a bit bad, because as much as she loved Jack and would love to have him to travel with again, she knew he would also be a bit of a buffer. She was well rested now and felt much better, and that meant she could remember everything she had said in her sleep-deprived state.
"No, no I don't think he'd like that very much." Rose made a rude noise and she felt Jack's body shake with laughter.
"He didn't really want you to come the first time, did he? And look how well he likes you now, he can get over the whole 'you rub against my time sense wrong' or whatever bothers him. He booted his other companions out, the Ponds, and- and I would really like it if you came." Rose pushed Jack back gently and he turned on his back, sighing and grinning up at her as she hovered over him, scrutinizing his face.
"Rose, we're all very much aware that the Doctor wouldn't say no to you."
"Jack-" Rose admonished, her cheeks burning.
"No Rose, this is- well it's fucking stupid, you two. You obviously love him, and he clearly has always been madly in love with you so I don't understand why you two don't just fu-"
"Jack!" Rose yelled, hitting him with a pillow and making him laugh.
"I understood before, the whole you being human and him being immortal, but now you've got that going for you too, so what the hell are you two waiting for?" Jack asked seriously, setting in and giving her his best captain look. Rose sighed, not knowing at all how the questioning had turned back around on her.
"He's different now, he had time to move on-"
"Rose, stop, just listen to me for a second. That alien, no matter how he looks, is always going to be in love with you. Do you think he's helping Owen out of the kindness of his hearts? Or that he stayed around long enough to save- to save us back there, when we had done everything possible to disappoint him. The Doctor is different, yeah, he's somehow gotten even angrier and he hides it behind that puppy dog, mad professor face and attitude, because sometimes it doesn't even seem like he cares who gets hurt, and I understand that Rose, I really do. You, no matter how old you get, will always care, but it's different for me and the Doctor." Jack admitted, refusing to meet her eyes.
"You care Jack, and so does the Doctor." Rose argued.
"We care about certain things, certain people, but anyone else outside that very small circle, it doesn't matter what happens to them. Something happened between the time he lost you and when he got you back, you're making him better, but he's still- he's a bit broken. He knows that, and he doesn't want you to become something he breaks. You'll just have to trust me on this one." They both sat leaning against the headboard, caught up in their own thoughts.
"I love you both," Rose admitted softly, causing Jack to pull her into a tight hug.
"And we love you, probably more than is healthy. You got my number, you need me for anything I'll come running."
"Same for you." They hugged before Jack pushed himself up and walked out of her room.
As much as Rose wanted to mope around in bed for a day or seven, she knew that would never do. She needed to fix things with the Doctor, tell him she could just be his mate again, nothing more than a travelling companion. It might be a lie now, but with time, it might grow to be true.
But first, a shower was in order. After she had cleaned up she dressed in jeans, yellow trainers, and a Led Zepplin tour t-shirt that her second Doctor had surprised her with after they had to deal with an Antivizin invasion and missed the concert. Rose would have been more disappointed about missing what everyone always said was Led Zepplin's best performance, but Antivizin happened to be small little balls of fluff with tiny little arms and huge eyes that hummed when they were pleased. It had been the most adorable invasion Rose had ever experienced.
Rose was walking down the corridors blindly, as most of her attention was on trying to get her hair to comply into a braid-like shape, but it wasn't listening to her. So when she ended up in the galley, where the Doctor was leaning over the oven, making something that actually smelled quite pleasant, she wasn't all that surprised.
"You're going to pull out all your hair if you do it that way," The Doctor commented after glancing at her when she let out a frustrated groan.
"I could have sworn I use to be good at this, mums a hairdresser, I could do braids in my sleep." Rose grumbled as she tugged on her hair. The Doctor wiped his hands on his apron, a frilly thing that had probably been a nice pink color but now was mostly covered in unidentifiable stains and burn marks. He motioned to a seat and Rose sat down obediently.
"Ah- right, yes I've got it." The Doctor exclaimed excitedly after several moments of silence and him running his fingers through her hair. In a few swift moves her hair was pulled back into a simple fishtail braid. "Your hair has gotten quite long."
"Yeah, no wonder you have no idea how old you are, gets a bit muddled after a while, doesn't it?" Rose touched her hair lightly, looking at the ends and wondering how bad her roots were.
"That's a bit insulting, Rose Tyler, I know exactly how old I am." Rose gave him a challenging look as he thought it over. "Well, it's not exactly fair, is it? I've had some years taken away, hidden, replaced, some that never existed. There was one regeneration that went a bit side-ways and I had a terrible memory that entire time."
"Was that the one with the techni-colored dream coat? Or- oh, the one with the twenty foot long scarf?" Rose questioned cheekily, making the Doctor nearly drop his spatula as he put an omelet on a plate before placing it in front of her. "Meet a few of your past selves, actually all of them. You came to save me from being erased, and then the universe decided that was a bit shite so it tried to erase you too." Rose took a bite of the omelet and nearly groaned. "This is gorgeous!" She fell on it, not realizing how hungry she actually was until half of it was gone.
"You saw all my different bodies?" The Doctor asked after she was finished with her food, he placed a cup of orange juice in front of her and she downed that quickly.
"Yes, bit of a fetish for pretty faces, yeah?" The Doctor blustered as Rose laughed. "I guess you should get to it, yeah? Savin' me. I could go see Jack, no it's fine Doctor, you don't have to look like that."
"It's always something with us, isn't it?" The Doctor suddenly looked ages older as he slumped in his seat. Rose stood and walked around the table, to the Doctor's side, and she gently ran her fingers through the soft strands of his hair. He leaned against her touch, and she briefly let herself enjoy the feeling before she forced herself away, grabbing the dirty dishes to take them to the sink, and thinking of making a cuppa.
She heard the squeak of the chair, thought that the Doctor might be moving to the console room to start working on a sequence to save her past self. He would have to find a way to merge both TARDIS' without tearing the universe apart, the poor thing was still trying to piece itself back together after River Song had her way with it. But Rose was surprised when she felt the soft brush of his jacket against her back.
Rose turned and couldn't help the small noise of surprise that escaped her upon realizing how close the Doctor had gotten without her notice. Her treacherous heart beat quicker, pumping blood through her veins at an alarming rate that made her entire body heat up, just by his close proximity, and the look in those ancient green eyes.
"Doctor," Rose chewed her bottom lip nervously, and she saw his eyes drift down. Once more, she thought with wary humor. She would try just once more to let him know how she felt, and then she would drop it, this time for good.
While Rose Tyler was gathering her courage, trying to dredge up some the recklessness of her 19 year old self, the Doctor lowered his head, tilting it to the side and his breath ghosted over her face. Rose's brain simply stopped functioning at that point.
"Tell me no, shake your head, push me away, anything Rose, any sign that you do not want this and I will back away." The Doctor said, holding his entire body, his whole being just a breath away from hers. She could feel the heat from him and smell the mint tea on his breath. Every atom of her being reached out to him, but she couldn't seem to move. Couldn't seem to reach out or speak up or anything, her mind and body coming to a stuttering stop at this moment she thought would never happen. "Rose?" He was even closer now, but still not touching her. There was a hated distance between them, a questioning look in his eyes which she wanted to dissuade him of.
"No." She was so close to him, studying his eyes as they peered into hers, that she saw the wave of despair come over him before he quickly shut it off, shut her out. He was backing away and Rose gasped in a breath. "No!" She couldn't help but say again, grabbing his lapels and pulling him forward. She registered shock in those green depths before their mouths were pressed together.
It wasn't at all how Rose had pictured their first kiss to be, nothing like the one shared with her half human Time Lord on the beach. It was clashing teeth and bumping noises.
"Sorry," Rose said instantly, rubbing her nose, but letting her other hand remain clutching his jacket. The Doctor was grinning though, grinning at her like she was something fantastic, and that had Rose giggling at her mistake. Maybe she had channeled her 19 year old self too well, all grabby hands and clashing mouths. "I'm sorry." She mumbled, touching his nose lightly, but he laughed. A real laugh too, and Rose couldn't help but grin at that no matter how embarrassed she was.
"Never apologize for kissing me, Rose Tyler." The way he said her name, and how close they were now made a slow shiver run down Rose's spine. He smiled like he knew the effect he was having on her, his eyes sparkling like it was a pleasant surprise he had just found out, like he hadn't known he had this effect on her since he was leather and she was still completely human. "Should we- uh- that is to say, um-" The Doctor fumbled, turning back into his usual clumsy self and Rose let out a breathless laugh.
"Yes, let's try that again." Rose suddenly looked up at him sternly. "For scientific purposes."
"Oh naturally, you cannot test a hypothesis by conducting one experiment." The Doctor agreed gravely. Rose had to fight to keep the smile off her face, but she failed miserably when he leant down and brushed his lips against hers.
"Yes, several tests must be made, control groups and all that need to be sorted." Rose tilted her head just a bit as the Doctor came down for another, soft kiss.
"And we need to ask ourselves if the procedure is working correctly, and if not to troubleshoot the procedure, and carefully check all the steps for the tests we are conducting." The Doctor's voice was quite even, until the last word, until Rose placed her hand gently between his two hearts, and that last word came out shaky.
"Then we need to-" Rose lost her words as the Doctor's hand worked its way through her still wet hair, coming to gently cup the back of her head.
"We need to what?" The Doctor asked, a grin stretching his lips and making him look quite full of himself.
"We need to analyze the data and draw a conclusion, and see if the results align with our original hypothesis or not." Rose could hardly believe herself, knew that if her younger self was here she would be positively groaning. She was flirting with science, and it was making her breathless. The Doctor was making her breathless.
"And if it doesn't, we take the experimental data and that will become background research for our new project." Rose had no idea how he made the words 'new project' sound filthy, but he did. Her eyes flicked up to his, and she licked her lips. He was ready, she could see that, but he was waiting for her.
Rose brought her lips against his once again, though far slower and gentler this time. It was like the first time they had hugged, or held hands. There wasn't the instant fit that had been there with her previous Doctor's, but a small adjustment from him, a tiny movement from her, and they found that they still fit together quite well.
After only a slight hesitation, Rose pressed her body firmly against his. Curves to angles, softness to hardness- and then she was letting out a small gasp when his hand found the small of her back and was pulling her even closer, pressing himself into her. The Doctor took her parted lips as an invitation, sweeping his tongue in just the barest amount, questioning, asking permission but not demanding. Rose slid one hand through his hair, tilted her head just a bit more, and gave him a solid answer to that question.
"Wait," It came out as a breathy request that Rose could barely even hear herself, but the Doctor's motions stilled instantly and he pulled back just a bit. Rose mourned the loss, but she let her body come to terms with what her mind was screaming at her. "S-sorry, just need a mo'." Rose blushed furiously at the shakiness of her voice.
"Do you want me to-" The Doctor pulled back another centimeter, but Rose pulled him back quickly, shaking her head and feeling embarrassed with her clinginess. "What is it?" The Doctor ended the sentence in his home language, the soft lilt of Gallifreyan caressing the words in a way no other language could. She didn't know what the words meant, but she knew the inflection, knew the look in his eyes that accompanied them. It was an endearment and it made her whole body heat up.
"What brought this on? If this is just you tryin' to put some distance between River and yourself-" The Doctor was already shaking his head, his body becoming tense underneath her hands.
"I feel responsible for River, I am the reason she didn't have a nice normal childhood. I'm the reason Amy and Rory were denied the right to raise her, to watch her grow older and cleverer and she would have been so brilliant, they all would have. If I had just left- if I hadn't come back for them, none of this would have happened." The Doctor's body was rigid and tense against her own, and Rose cursed herself for ruining the moment, but she knew they had to talk about this, because if he decided to pull away after this, she wasn't quite sure she'd be able to recover fully.
"So you married her?"
"I asked her if her suffering would be worse than the billions of lives being lost, if her suffering over losing mew would be worse, and she said yes." There was true anguish in his eyes. "No one person is meant to be that important."
"Doctor, The Silence is who took her and turned her into what she is-"
"The Silence wouldn't even have existed without me."
"Neither would have thousands of planets, billions of people! Doctor, I would be dead if it wasn't for you in that department store basement. Maybe humans would have learned how to fight back against the Autons, but how many lives would have been lost? And what about all the alien invasions that have happened, or were goin' to happen before you stopped them? And that's just on Earth alone." Rose blew out a raspberry, making the Doctor grin and lean his forehead against hers. "You look at nothin' but the bad and of course it's goin' to look bad, Doctor, but you're so much more than that."
"My Rose Tyler," He chuckled and leaned down to brush his lips against hers, making our whole body thrum in pleasure just from that little contact alone.
"Doctor-" Rose said his name in a half exaggerated fashion, drawing out the title in annoyance and making him grin against her mouth.
"I'm not going anywhere Rose, I've been waiting a long time for you to be ready." His voice was rough and husky, and he bent down to kiss her fully, deciding that the topic was closed for discussion. Rose responded enthusiastically before his words clicked in her head and she pulled back, making him groan and her laugh.
"You've been waitin' for me?" Rose asked in disbelief.
"Yes, very patiently, might I add." He leaned closer again but Rose pulled back, frowning. "Rose."
"You've been waitin' for me to be ready?" Rose asked again, just to clarify things.
"Yes, that is what I've said, three times now." The Doctor leaned forward again, but was distracted by Rose's sudden laughter. He frowned down at her, though the corners of his mouth twitched upwards.
"Oh you stupid bloody alien, I've been waitin' for you to be ready! Didn't think it was ever goin' to happen." Rose admitted once her laughter had subsided.
"Me? You've been waiting on me? Rose, I have been wanting to do this for a long time, you're the one who needed time to adjust." The Doctor spoke as if she was being particularly slow.
"Yeah? How do you figure that?" Rose asked, merely curious.
"First I had to wait for you to get over the whole time and space travelling aspect-"
"Wait, that means the first you-" The Doctor bent down and crushed his lips against hers, making her words die in her throat as her whole body heated up and her hands gripped him.
"No interrupting." The Doctor said huskily, though Rose thought she might have to interrupt a few more times if that was his punishment towards her interruptions. "Then I had to wait for you to get over Mickey Smith, then there was Adam and Jack and a number of other pretty boys that made me think you didn't really want me, and then you came back for me, burning from the inside out. But then I regenerated, and you didn't seem to want anything to do with me."
"Then there was Sarah Jane Smith and Mickey Smith, again, and Cleopatra and Madame de Pompadour-"
"You lost Mickey Smith and your alternative-father rejected you, and then I nearly lost you to the Wire and I thought- I definitely thought it'd happen after that." Rose thought back to that night and blushed.
"But my mum called and demanded we come home for her birthday. And right after that Korp Tor happened."
"And I was so focused on losing you that I forgot to just enjoying myself. Then shortly after that Torchwood happened and I lost you, what I thought, was for good." The Doctor caressed her cheek, making her shiver and press herself closer to him, smiling at the newfound knowledge that she could do that now, that he wanted her to and encouraged her with a satisfied smile.
"But I came back to you," Rose reminded him with a smile before that fell away. "Then there were two of you."
"And we couldn't exist together, it would cause a paradox, so I sent you away because your family was in that universe and I thought you'd be happier with him. I'm so sorry Rose, I didn't know-" It was Rose's turn to cut him off with a kiss. It was soft and chaste, but when she pulled away he followed her and that made her smile.
"Why didn't you snog me when you first saw me?" Rose wondered, speaking when he would have kissed her.
"Shock, surprise, disbelief. For a while I didn't believe it was actually you, but then I did, and then I learned what I put you through in that other universe. Then Amy was plastic and was being used like a-" The Doctor sucked in a deep breath, anger flashing in his eyes and Rose hugged him closer. "You always pulled away."
"Because you always looked like you were about to bolt!" Rose countered, scowling at him. The Doctor chuckled against her and she couldn't keep the scowl in place, not when he was so close to her, wrapped up in each other, and her lips still tingled with the feel and taste of him.
"Not going anywhere." He said something in his native tongue, something that had Rose's body flushing and she suddenly found herself kissing him once again.
"What is that?" Rose gasped as they broke apart and there was a loud alarm going off, lights flashing, the TARDIS humming angrily.
"Cloister bells, alarm setting." The Doctor winced and sighed and placed his forehead against hers all in one movement that nearly had her grinning, except the alarm was really quite loud. "You said I go back and save you, well that makes a circular paradox. You're only here because I went back and saved you, so I have to go back." Rose nodded, knowing all this already.
"And I can't be here with you when it happens." Rose said knowingly, smiling a little to ease the look of worry on his face. "So where are you goin' to drop me? If I can request, someplace sunny." She was grinning at him now, trying to get some sort of reaction out of him.
"Someplace sunny," The Doctor mumbled before taking a deep breath and straightening up. "Yes, someplace sunny, I've got the perfect place! Even you, jeopardy friendly as you are, will have a hard time digging up trouble."
"Oi!" Rose was about to retaliate, but the Doctor dodged out of her arms and down the hall. Rose let out a soft noise of surprise before she heard something crash in the hall and the Doctor's groan.
A/N: I am so sorry for the long wait (I seem to apologize for that a lot…) but me and this chapter had to go a couple rounds, neither of us were pleased with the other person. But I do hope you like it! Now there are two more chapters until this story is complete, it will be jumping ahead a bit to a re-write of the 50th Anniversary and Rose Tyler won't be the only added-in character, so I hope you will like that chapter! Thanks so much for your support, and I really do appreciate and love all the reviews and favorites.