Neither of us really liked the Human Nature arc as it was on the telly.

TheDoctorMulder had a problem with them being stuck in that time period out of all the possibilities, and the fact that the story was ripped from the 7th Doctor novel "Human Nature," which brings into question the "canonicity" of the books, if Doctor Who can really be considered to have a canon when time can be rewritten.

"Hawkerin hated some of the characters. Not telling who, that could get messy.

XxXxXxXx

The Doctor awoke in a bit of a trance and walked silently out of the ship. Rose picked up their bags and followed him quickly, not wanting to leave him alone anywhere in such a state. The TARDIS was parked in a back alley, similar to the way he often parked the ship and she followed him out onto the street. Suddenly, he whirled around to face her with a bright smile.

"Isn't it fantastic, Love?" he shouted happily.

"Uh, yeah," she responded quickly, shaken by his change in behaviour already. He'd never called her 'Love' before; never even used the word other than to say that it wasn't good enough. "Do you know where we're headed?" she asked, knowing that the TARDIS had arranged for their flat and his shop already.

"Yup! This way. Oh, let me carry those, Sweetheart," he added as he grabbed the bags and led her down the street another block to their destination.

Rose ran after him, flustered by the change in his demeanour. Yes, he had always been as energetic, excitable, and even affectionate, but the open endearments were very human and out of character for her Doctor. It was just a reminder that this wasn't exactly her Doctor. This was her human husband, John Smith.

John babbled as they walked down the street, pointing out things and telling stories they reminded him of, whether or not the story had anything to do with what he'd actually pointed out or not. This was a reminder that the man she walked next to wasn't a stranger, either, he was still the Doctor. This was the Doctor as a human.

It gave her a headache, but if she could handle a regeneration, she could handle this. It was sort of like a regeneration, but he looked the same and had a bit of amnesia. The Doctor said that amnesia happened sometimes with regeneration.

Their flat was above the shop where he would be repairing spaceships and other equipment. The sign had been put up over the doors, Bad Wolf Repairs, but the windows were dark to show that it hadn't opened for business yet.

That was deliberate, she thought to the TARDIS. She received a feeling of smugness from the sentient timeship.

He skipped the shop for the time being and went straight up to their flat. The door opened with a touch from either of them automatically.

The flat was small, but functional for the two of them. They had visited similar time periods often enough that she wouldn't have too much trouble using the technology. The backstory of her life being approximately the same would be enough of an excuse if there was anything new to her.

"This is nice. Bit smaller than we're used to, but should do for now, eh?" he commented as he bounced around, examining the details of their temporary home. "Won't be long until I get business going well enough that you won't even have to keep taking work from the Time Agency for cash," he added.

"Do I have to go report to anyone or something?" she asked, not recalling any details of her work being given to her by the TARDIS.

"No, don't you remember? They'll just send people to you at the shop if they need information from your time. Means you can help me in the office. You never know when we might need to play secretary," he teased seductively. He hugged her from behind suddenly, kissed her neck, and pressed against her backside suggestively.

Rose gasped in surprise. He had never been quite so openly randy around her before. She couldn't help but wonder if the changes to his physiology to human had also affected his external anatomy. She had come to rather like those little bumps.

Rose didn't have to wonder for long because he was unzipping her jeans and plunging his warm hand down the front of them. She soon found herself half naked on their sofa with a very much familiar, not-so-human feeling erection pressing into her. She groaned and wrapped her legs around his waist. Maybe the next three months wouldn't be so bad after all.

#########

Rose put their clothing away and went searching for the Doctor. No, he was John now, she had to remember that. She found him in the shop, surrounded by boxes full of tools. He was turned away from her and bent over, and she took a moment to stare at his bum. He had changed into jeans and a t-shirt after their little romp upstairs and it was a style that she wasn't used to with this version of the Doctor. She certainly wasn't complaining though, the look on him was delicious.

"Hey, there you are!" she said, making her presence known.

John jumped and looked over at her. "Hey! All done?" he asked.

"For now," she replied.

He took in the mess around him, grimaced, and asked, "Hungry?"

"Starved," Rose answered.

"Let's go find some place to get a bite." He stepped over a couple of open boxes and took her arm. They walked from the shop into a little place next door that had a Chinese vibe to it.

"Welcome to the Emerald Serpent," greeted a man when they walked in. He was about forty-five years old, or Rose would say so from the standards of her time, with thick, dark, unruly hair and brilliantly green eyes. "Please sit anywhere you care to."

Rose and John sat at the bar, in chairs that would spin. When John realized this, he spun around in a circle once before Rose stopped him. "Spoilsport," he accused, putting on a mock pout.

The older man who'd greeted them handed them a pair of menus. "I'm Marcus," he greeted. "I've not seen the two of you around here before."

"Ah, we're new here," John replied. "Just about to open the little repair shop next door."

Marcus welcomed them to the neighbourhood and told them that the special was a steak and cheese sandwich.

"Steak and cheese sandwich. That doesn't seem very Chinese," Rose whispered to John when Marcus left to see to other customers.

"It's not," he agreed. "This is all just decorations."

"Ah," she replied and opened her menu. She then closed it, looked at the front and back, and opened it again. It had moving pictures on it. John chuckled beside her.

"You use it like a touch screen," he whispered to her, then swiped at his own menu to show her.

"Why not just have a regular menu?" she grumbled.

"Because it's much much easier to change the menu when you don't have to order all new ones printed every time you decide to add something or take it away," he explained.

Rose swiped at the menu, looking at the various items. She chose fish and chips, something at least a little familiar. John chose a soup and sandwich combo that Rose had never heard of.

######

Over the next few days, Rose and John settled into a routine of sorts. John finally got his shop in order and opened for customers. Rose wondered just how ordered the shop would stay once in use. He'd already had the bathroom in a whole new "order" that was anything but.

Rose's first consult for the Time Agency was about clothing for someone going to the US in her time, but during her childhood. She'd also had to correct the poor woman, who thought that Cher really did sound choppy like that.

During the first week, Rose consulted on three more trips to the century she was born in. When she questioned John about it, he explained that the time she was from was of special interest. It was a time when Earth was advancing quickly in technology, but before they sent people to the next planet over and before alien kind had become widely known.

"The twenty-first century was when everything changed," he explained.

Rose was learning how to be a secretary as well. She didn't like it one bit, but she was helping John get his business off the ground. It didn't matter that he would only be in business for three months, she still gave it her all.

No matter where she was or what she was doing, she kept the watch that held the rest of the Doctor with her. She didn't trust such an important object to be out of her sight, and even if she did have a spot where she thought it was safe, she wouldn't be able to feel the Doctor. Breaking their bond was painful, and Doctor-in-the-Watch helped.

John continued being openly affectionate, and Rose was really enjoying that. As the Doctor, he was affectionate, hugging her, holding her hand, kissing her, and telling her how smart she was. As John, he'd wrap his arms around her any chance he could get and nuzzle her. He'd call her endearments and constantly tell her she was beautiful.

The first night after the Chameleon Arch was used, they went to bed and he started kissing her, unbuttoning her pajama shirt. She reciprocated happily, but then he did something that shocked her.

"I love you, Rose," he murmured as he undid the last button. She gasped in shock, but on second thought, it shouldn't have been too shocking. She grabbed him and brought her lips to his with everything she had, taking control and losing herself in the moment.

She'd started having lunch at the place they'd had dinner the first night. She was becoming good friends with the owner, Marcus. His wife had started the restaurant, but had died two years previously.

"Oh, Rose, I had wondered if I was going to see you today. Saw one of those Time Agents show up earlier," Marcus greeted when she came in one day. The restaurant was empty at the time and he had the time to talk with her.

"Oh, that one didn't take long. She just needed to be sure that she could blend in," she told him.

"I thought about working for the Agency once," he commented, wiping down a table.

"Why didn't you?" she wondered.

"I met my Elaine," he replied, with a sad, but fond look on his face.

"Tell me about her?" Rose asked. And he did.

##########

Rose was finally getting the hang of taking appointments and figuring out the different systems for the computer. It was nothing like answering the phone and using a calendar, but it seemed like several centuries in, they'd finally gotten that "paperless" plan to work.

They were almost at the end of business hours, so Rose wandered into John's work area to see what he was up to. His legs were sticking out from under a vaguely familiar ship.

"What kind of ship is that, John?" she asked curiously.

"It's Chula," he replied loudly from beneath the vehicle and Rose's heart thudded quicker. She gasped when a very familiar face popped out of the door to greet her.

"Well, hello! Jack Harrison," he introduced himself with a million dollar smile and offered his hand.

Rose's eyes went as wide as saucers and she was glad that John couldn't see her face. It was Jack. Jack Harkness. Well, he was using a slightly different name, but she remembered him telling her once that he used a lot of different names along the way. She tried to get a sense for whether he knew her or not, but his face wasn't showing any signs of recognition, just his usual flirtatiousness.

"Pleasure," she squeaked and shook his hand stiffly.

"What is a lovely creature like you doing in a greasy place like this?" he asked.

"Oi! That's my wife you're flirting with there, Jack! Keep that up and I might have to charge you double," John said teasingly as he crawled out and put his arm over Rose's shoulders. Jack looked him over deliberately and grinned.

"What kind of work does it need?" she wondered, trying to make normal sounding conversation while calming herself. John would sense something was wrong otherwise and start asking about it.

"I'm hoping to discreetly hook my vortex manipulator into the navigation system," Jack answered. "Need a couple of parts to weld the systems together."

"You're a Time Agent?" she asked, trying to see where he was in his timeline.

"Yeah. Although, I'm not sure for how much longer," he told her with a sigh.

"Why's that then?"

"Corruption in the system," he replied with a shrug.

"Ugh, I know. If we didn't need the money, I wouldn't let them anywhere near Rose. At least they aren't making her travel the way they did for me," John told him.

"You used to be an Agent too?" Jack asked curiously.

"Used to. That's how I met Rose," he said with a grin. "This absolutely gorgeous, pure blooded human is from the 21st century." He hugged her tightly and kissed her cheek.

"And you brought her here?" Jack exclaimed. "You were allowed to bring her here?"

"Her parents and closest friends are dead. We fell in love. What else was I to do?" John told him.

"Hmm. Suppose you're right," Jack responded and the look in his eyes shifted to something that Rose recognized as suspicion from him. If she hadn't known him so well, she wouldn't have seen it, but they had grown close when he was travelling with them. She didn't know exactly what happened to Jack after the Game Station and she couldn't ask the Doctor right now, but she vowed that she would find out as soon as all of this was over. "Join me for a drink sometime?" he suggested.

"We'd love to," John answered and Rose just smiled.

With a friendly nod, Jack was gone from the shop.

"So, what was that about, then?" John asked her and she knew that she hadn't hidden her surprise at seeing Jack quite as well as she thought.