Pre Wedding Jitters
Busy was definitely not the word to describe the last few hours, the Doctor thought. Chaotic, frenzied, and utterly crazy were much better adjectives. Today had been so full of life, as his friends and his family all tried to lend a hand in preparation for today's big event.
After Sabrina had gone upstairs to sleep, Sarah Jane and Luke had arrived, followed shortly by Jack, Ianto, Mickey and a very pregnant Martha. The Doctor was pleased for the Smiths. They both deserved so much happiness and their timelines simply shined.
Rose had sent Mickey, Tony and Luke to the Reception Hall. Something about needing to arrange tables and setting up the reception. Martha had gone to help with the caterer.
Jack and Ianto were setting up security. Rose had said that they couldn't take any chances. One of Trisha and Tony's weddings had been thwarted by an alien attack after all. One of their weddings, there was a story behind that and the Doctor was eager to hear it.
To his extreme displeasure, Rose and Sarah Jane had taken their gowns, the bridesmaids' dresses and Amy's gown to the church. Rory had gone to move their TARDIS there as well. Apparently he and Rose were also meeting with the wedding officiant to go over a few last-minute details.
He had offered to come along, but Rose had asked him to stay here and help Trisha with the kids. He had played with EJ and read her a story while Trisha had bathed Jamie and made lunch. After lunch, EJ was given a bath and laid down for a nap. That was over an hour ago.
Neither Rose nor anyone else had made it back from their errands yet. Suddenly he was nervous. What if this was Rose's way of telling him she didn't want him around? His breath quickened, and he felt a tightness wrap itself inside his chest. No, that couldn't be it at all. Just this morning she had called him love. Had all but said out loud that she loved him still; she was just busy. Human weddings had always seemed a bit fussy to him.
In any case, he found himself gently rocking a now sleeping infant in an upstairs nursery. No one looking at this house from the outside would know that this house held many secrets, not the least of which was that the upstairs was bigger on the inside. Trisha had said that James and Rory expanded it a few years back when she and Tony had moved back home.
"You are a very lucky boy, Jamie. So much potential, so much life stretched out in front of you, so many people who love you and no reason to ever doubt that they do." The Doctor kissed his head and laid him down in his crib.
"You shouldn't doubt it either," Trisha said in a whisper behind him. "But I understand why you would."
Jumping slightly at the sound of her voice, the Doctor turned and quickly joined her in hallway. "You shouldn't sneak up on people holding a sleeping baby."
"Oh, come off it." She smiled and started down the hall and downstairs. "You'd already laid him down. Thank you for putting him down for his nap, by the way, and for helping with EJ earlier."
"Your children are beautiful," he said with admiration. "You are very lucky."
Trisha smiled as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "Thank you. I am very lucky to have them, all the family actually. What do you want them to call you?"
"Excuse me?" the Doctor asked, confused.
"They, well, EJ at least, calls Mum- Gran. We had settled on Granddad for Dad. You are more than welcome to use that, if you like. Or we could go with Grandfather, Gramps or steal Mels' Pops," Trisha said casually.
Unable to say anything, the Doctor just gaped at her. This woman that he had only met for a few minutes two years ago in her timeline, and had only spent a few hours with today, was asking which variation of grandfather he wanted her children to call him. Warmth spread throughout his chest at the thought of those two precious humans thinking of him in that way.
She must have sensed his awkwardness because she quickly said, "Or they can just call you Doctor, for now at least."
He nodded in agreement. Then studying her, he asked, "Upstairs, what you said outside Jamie's room, what did you mean?"
Moving to the couch and sitting down, she closed her eyes for a second. "It's just that I know what it's like to feel like you don't deserve to be loved. My parents divorced when I was young. My mother is a workaholic and UNIT is very demanding. My father moved away, got remarried, had Sabrina and then died shortly afterwards. I was raised by a series of babysitters, especially after my grandfather died."
She looked up and smiled sadly. "No one in my life could be bothered to deal with me, unless Mother was paying them. I thought that's just how all people were. I didn't want that for my sister. Brina's birth mother died when she was young and she was bounced around the system until James and Rose found her.
"I mistakenly thought that there was no way that Sabrina could be happy here. So one day, once I had legally become an adult, I showed up out of the blue. Demanded that James turn over custody of Sabrina to me immediately and if he didn't I'd take them to court. Do you know what he did?"
The Doctor had a pretty good idea but shook his head anyway.
"Dad offered me a compromise, unlimited access to my sister and I wouldn't have to put my life on hold to raise her. At least that's just what he said. In actuality he was offering me a place in the family. It took me a while to accept that the Tylers' wanted nothing from me, other than me. Just me. It took a while to feel like I deserved them. The same way you do."
Trisha gave a short laugh. "Amy and I have this joke about how Mum and Dad just flit around collecting strays…orphans. All of us, well, except Rory, are pretty much orphans. Things have gotten better with my own mother since EJ was born. But the point is, when we're with the family we don't feel alone. Even now with Dad gone…" She wiped a tear away. "Even now it feels like completion being here, around them."
Looking up, she met his eyes and stared at him with self-assurance. "This family makes people better and we all want you here, but I swear, Doctor, if you hurt them, any of them, I will make sure you live to regret it. Are we clear?"
From the look on her face the Doctor knew this woman was deadly serious, and he was just a little scared of her. No wonder Tony liked her so much. "Crystal clear," he said simply.
After a moment's silence he asked, "Has ever told you that you remind them of Jackie?"
"Once or twice," she said brightly. "Met her once, downright scary when she found out I married the baby boy she hadn't even had yet."
The Doctor opened his mouth to ask what she meant when the front door opened. Rose, Rory and Tony entered. "We've got trouble," Tony blurted out.
"What kind of trouble?" Trisha asked, jumping to her feet and moving to open a panel in the wall.
"Calm down, Trigger," Rory said with a roll of his eyes. "Not that kind of trouble, just some paparazzi. Nothing more than a couple of guys wanting pictures."
Confused, the Doctor asked, "Why would there be paparazzi here?" Once again he had sidled up to Rose, taking her hand in his. The moment their palms touched he felt like everything was right in the universe.
"Amelia is a bestselling author and just signed a very lucrative deal for the rights to make it into a television serial," Rose explained.
Smiling, Rory said, "And apparently I'm the lay-about guy who's just marrying her for her money. I'm a kept man." The groom chuckled.
"Scary coincidence then," Tony said, inclining his head at his mother. "Reminds me of what another set of dinky reporters said about Mum and Dad."
In retrospect, the Doctor had never really tried to think about what life must have been like back on Pete's world for Rose and James. It had honestly hurt way too much. There must have been interest in her life, though. Long lost daughter of the Vitex CEO and her mysterious love interest, there must have been a feeding frenzy surrounding them.
"At least it's only a few people, not the hordes we had surrounding my wedding," Rose said with a half-smile. "Mum booked three locations for that day just to throw the press off our scent. Her fault, really. She's the one who insisted on the huge wedding. James and I would have been happy with just the family around for the bonding ceremony."
The Doctor squeezed her hand. That's what he would have wanted to. That's what he did want, with Rose. One day, if that's what she wanted. Bugger, less than twenty-four hours ago he thought he'd never see her again, and now he was standing in her living room, with her children, thinking about marriage to her. He couldn't imagine his future going any other way.
Beside him, Rose blushed.
"Come on, Mum, it was a beautiful wedding and dodging the press was exciting." Tony grinned madly.
"For you, maybe," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "You were only six when we left, and we were so careful about shielding you from everything. For seven years everything I did was scrutinized. My career, my love life, my friends…"
"Your drunken tattooed escapades?" Tony added and then looked away innocently. Trisha smacked her husband's arm and Rory turned away laughing.
Rose blanched. "You remember that? You weren't even five yet."
"Well I remember Mum-Jackie yelling and screaming the day the pictures came out. Something about how it was like the two of you enjoyed causing trouble. Plus Dad's was pretty obvious." Tony tried and failed to keep a straight face.
Waves of embarrassment were rolling off Rose; the Doctor could feel them, strongly. Even if she was telepathic now, he shouldn't be this in tune with her emotions.
Suddenly he heard her voice in his head again. "Probably a latent link to the bond James and I shared. You and he are the same person after all."
He was rusty at this, but he thought back, "How did you know what I was thinking?"
"You were practically screaming it in my head, love. I guess you need a little more practice at keeping those shields locked tight."
Trisha's voice brought him back into the conversation that was not occurring in his mind. "Oh, you mean the one his chest?"
Not for the first time in the last few hours the Doctor felt left out.
"He had a rose on the right side of his chest, where his other heart would have been. 'My heart', he called me." Rose thought to him, giving the Doctor's hand a squeeze.
"And what did you get?" Trisha asked curiously.
Quickly Rory changed the subject. "The real question is what are we going to do about these reporters? They were heading around back. They may have seen the TARDIS, the Doctor's TARDIS. And strangely enough, it looks exactly like the one in Amy's book."
"There's an easy answer for that." The Doctor joined in the conversation once more. "Just tell the press it's a wedding present. Rory had it made for her to celebrate today. I read Amy's books last night. They are excellent, very imaginative."
"Brilliant," Tony smiled. "I'll go handle them, then." With that, he headed through the kitchen and out the back door.
"Well, with that settled," Rory began while looking at his watch, "I think we need to get you ladies to the church, so that you can start getting ready. I need to get back over there myself soon."
"Right," Rose said, clapping her hands together. "Trisha, can you call Mels while I go wake up your sister?"
"No problem, Mum. I'll make sure that Tony gets the kids over to the church as soon as they're up from nap time," Trisha said as she pulled out her mobile.
Rose dragged the Doctor after her as she went up the stairs. Stopping at the first door at the top of the staircase, she carefully extracted her hand from his and pushed open the door. "Brina, love, time to wake up."
"Hmmm, no, need sleep," Sabrina mumbled as she buried her head under her pillow.
Pulling the pillow and blanket off the bed, Rose tutted, "Sorry, Sweetheart, I let you sleep as long as I could. Now I need you out of bed, showered and heading to the church. You want to look spectacular in those photos, don't you?" Now Rose pulled on her daughter's hand.
"Keep your knickers on," Sabrina exclaimed, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "Give me half an hour and I'll meet you there." Yawning, Sabrina pushed her mum out of the room and started pulling things together.
Back in the hall, the Doctor took Rose's hand the second she was back outside the door. "I just have to grab my bag, Doctor, and then I need to head over and get ready." At the end of the hall she opened to door to her room. It was bright with several windows, no drapes though, just blinds. No carpets in this room, he noticed. The duvet on the bed was a deep blue with a bright white line crossing it in square patterns.
"What are you going to wear?" Rose asked, straightening his bowtie.
"What's wrong with what I'm wearing now?" He looked down at the outfit he had chosen for this regeneration. Honestly, he thought he looked rather handsome.
"You look more than just handsome, Doctor," Rose said with a slow sexy grin. Obviously he was projecting again. Blimey, this new mental connection was going to take some time to get a handle on. It's just that Rose tended to distract him from doing things like shielding his mind.
Reaching up a hand, Rose caressed his cheek. "It's just that this is a formal wedding; it would be nice if you could wear a tux. Not the unlucky one, not sure that one would fit your new frame anyway. I'm sure your old girl would have something appropriate." Gently she pulled his head down until their foreheads were touching.
"If I didn't know any better, Rose Tyler, I'd think that you were trying to get my clothes off." Even he was surprised by the boldness in his flirting.
"Maybe you don't know me as well as you once thought." Her voice was low and husky as she softly planted a kiss on his cheek.
One of his hands found the small of her back and pulled her tightly to him. Dipping his head, he buried his nose in her hair, his lips very close to the shell of her ear. "So tell me." He could feel her shiver as his breath ghosted her skin. "What tattoo did you get?"
Rose glanced over her shoulder towards the door, making sure that it was shut. Without preamble, she lifted the hem of her shirt a few inches and pulled the left side of her trousers down over her hip bone.
Looking down he saw it. Just below her waist on her hip was a TARDIS tattoo. "It's the color of your TARDIS," he whispered as his hand came down to her waist and his thumb ran over the ink painted skin.
"The tattoo guy mixed the color wrong and neither of us noticed it until the next morning." She swallowed hard. "Our girl chose her color from this, to make me feel better. I wish she hadn't, though… So many awkward question."
Dragging his eyes back up to meet hers, his thumb rubbing gentle circles on the area, the Doctor said, "I think that your ship is beautiful and I think that this…" His eyes flicked down again. "Is very, very sexy."
The Doctor wasn't sure who moved first, but suddenly his lips were again on hers. Her hand had slid into his hair. Not thinking, just feeling, acting on impulse, he walked her backward towards the bed. The backs of her legs hit the mattress, and she automatically began to lower herself down.
"MUM!" A voice called from downstairs.
A stream of curses flew out of Rose's mouth, in Gallifreyan. The Doctor blinked, since when did Rose speak Gallifreyan? The corners of his lips twitched upwards; he had so much to relearn about her.
She pushed him off of her and stood up. Grabbing a bag off the dresser, she turned back to the Doctor. "I have to go, love. We'll talk later, yeah? And I do mean talk first, before any of that…" she waved a hand at the bed, "happens. Neither one of us is a hormonal teenager." A snort escaped the Doctor's lips. Rose winked at him and then left the room. "Tuxedo, please, I'll make sure she lays out something nice," she called back from the hall.
In frustration, the Doctor flopped back onto the bed. In his last two bodies, the thought of talking about his feelings about Rose, even to Rose, would have sent him running in the other direction. But now after having lost her twice, he'd sign up as one of her therapy patients rather than face losing her for a third time. Funnily enough, this new body almost seemed ready made for that kind of discussion.
Looking at a family portrait on the nightstand, he knew there was so much more at stake than just her this time 'round. So if talking first is what Rose wanted, talking is what she would get. As long as he could keep his baser instincts under control the next time they found themselves alone.