Complicated

by The-Plot-Thinens

John Smith is a professor at a prestigious university and had what some would describe as the perfect life. Now with the perfect wife, his life seems complete. Though Mrs. Smith might have signed up for more than she bargained for when she had first considered John's age gap. Sort of a retelling of Doctor Who season 1 with complications. See it through it gets better, promise.

37. Ch 37 Father's Day: A Daughter's love

Complicated

by The Plot Thinens

Chapter 37 – Father's Day: Part I – A Daughter's love

The Doctor did not go back to sleep that night, he thought that the rest of Rose's sleep cycle would be better spent reading. Looking through his library the Time Lord found an ancient tome to mull over. He then made his way to the console room but not before stopping in the kitchen to set up a few things for breakfast first. He didn't really need to eat everyday but Rose being a human did. The Time Lord then parked himself down for a few hours of reading.

Now if you were to ask her, she probably wouldn't be able to tell you, but somehow Rose managed to get back to sleep and got in a few more hours. Her sleep was not dreamless but this time was full of memories of her family instead of her husband. She dreamt of a time like many when she was small when her mother would sit her down and tell her of her father. Rose woke up from sad but pleasant memories and was resolute to ask this favor of the Doctor while she was still in his good graces. This time she did not dress up but wore casual street clothes for two reasons. One: she didn't want to stand out if they were going back into her personal past, just another face in the crowd. Perhaps out of hopeful thinking that the Doctor would say yes. Two: She figured that it didn't matter how she dressed. The Doctor didn't seem to care or raise an eyebrow, no matter how flashy or unflashy she dressed. So why bother? Rose had not found the Doctor in the kitchen that morning but food had been left out for her. 'That was sweet of him.' Rose thought, not wanting to make too much of it as she quickly drank her tea and had a few bites of toast. To be honest her stomach was in knots and she wasn't that hungry. She just wanted to find the Doctor and get this over with, since she wasn't sure on the answer she would get.

When Rose finally found the Doctor he was sitting on the jump seat reading a book that looked older than old and had a language she could not recognize on it. Sensing her presences the Doctor put down the book and grabbed some bit of the TARDIS off the console and began playing with it. He didn't want it looking too much like he had been waiting up for her, which he was. As casually as possible he looked up to his human companion.

"Morning, Rose." Smiled the Doctor to Rose, but then he saw the shy and serious look on Rose's face and knew that something was up. She wanted to ask something of him, he could tell, but she was obviously scared to do it. When he was John, the Doctor recalled that Rose had never looked this scared to talk to him before, not even when she had confessed that she liked him. Irritated by yet another of the memories of his fake life that just seemed to pop up whenever they liked he directed his attention to Rose and nervously laughed,

"What is it, Rose? I may look like a gargoyle, but I won't bite you." Rose chuckled a little in response and ran her hand along the TARDIS console trying to focus on the feel of it and not on how nervous she was. She then took in a deep breath and began to explain to the Doctor what her mother had told her about her father while looking over an old album of grainy photographs. She repeated it like a mantra.

"Peter Alan Tyler, my dad. The most wonderful man in the world. Born 15th of September 1954. I wasn't old enough to remember when he died. That was1987, 7th of November. The day that Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clarke got married. And before that day he was always having adventures. That's what Mum always says. So I was thinking, could we, could we go and see my dad when he was still alive?" Asked Rose in a meek and hesitant voice.

"Where's this come from, all of a sudden?" Asked the Doctor a bit confused. Even when he had been John she had never really spoken much to him about her father, beyond that they were married in the same chapel that her parents had been married in and that her father was dead. Any information that he could recall from before had not led him to believe that she significantly missed her father, but he supposed that she probably had to a little. Rose really wanted to do this but the Doctor's hesitant voice was making her fast lose any confidence she had in her right to even ask this of her husband-friend-person.

"All right then, if we can't, if it goes against the laws of times or something, then never mind, just leave it." Replied Rose quickly while she looked off to the side trying to pretend like it was no big deal and that her heart was not hanging on his answer to come. The Doctor was not fooled at all and could clearly tell that Rose wouldn't be asking of him for something this specific or personal if it didn't mean a great deal to her. She was obviously afraid that he was going to say no. Maybe this was the chance that he was looking for to do something for Rose that would prove to her just how much she meant to him, but without having to put it into words what quite frankly failed to describe what she was to him. He figured that he better give her an answer so that she could breathe again because she seemed to be holding it in while waiting for a response.

"No, I can do anything. I'm just more worried about you." Answered the Doctor, and indeed he was worried. No one knew like the Doctor how painful it was to lose or to see old faces left behind. Or to see old faces left behind that you lost. Time travel always made 'goodbyes' a difficult things for Time Lords. The Doctor seemed to have made a habit of taking her through time just to see great losses. Rose had already seen her planet destroyed, would she be able to handle seeing her father alive only to lose him again. And why did she want this now? It seems rather left field, but the Doctor couldn't help but feel that it had something to do with his coldness to Rose and her most likely longing for a comforting male figure in her life again. The Doctor was many things, a teacher, a mentor, a friend, and even a hand to hold, but beyond that… His affections towards her were most likely lacking from what she was used to in the past. Okay, they were lacking from what she was used to. In the past, the body he was inhabiting, or at least one that looked just like it on the outside, had been at her every comfort's command. Rose's shaky voice brought him back to reality and he leaned forward in his chair to listen.

"I want to see him." Swallowed Rose trying to sound sure of herself. The Doctor knew that to cross your own timeline was very unwise and if he weren't the only Time Lord left in the universe then there would be penalties and laws against this. But poor Rose, she had endured so much already and he had denied her so much, The Doctor couldn't deny her this too. Against his better judgment he decided to go along with her request. Surely Rose was now seasoned enough at time travel that she would behave herself and as long as he kept an eye on her then she would stay out of trouble.

"Your wish is my command. But be careful what you wish for." The Doctor warned as he stood up to begin preparations for the trip. Rose took in another deep breath and let out a sigh of relief. He was going to let her do it. She was going to see her father. Fantastic!

It seemed such a strange thing to attend your parents' wedding. Sure nowadays many people do it, but attending your parents' wedding before you were even conceived…now that was strange. Yet here she was with her husband-friend, The Doctor, in the back row, and in the same room that she had been standing being married to the man sitting next to her not very long ago…well relatively speaking according to her timeline. Right now that was years into the future when that would happen. Rose looked down to the Doctor's hands, she wanted to hold his hand very badly right now, but at the moment both his hands were tightly crossed in his lap and he was looking ahead very engrossed in the ceremony. Rose looked ahead deciding it was better not to miss a moment she probably wasn't going to get to see again.

"I, Peter Alan Tyler, take you, Jacqueline Angela Suzette Prentice" Declared the registrar for Peter Tyler to repeat. The man, Peter, was clearly very nervous and sweating as he attempted his part of the ceremony.

"I, Peter Alan Tyler, take you, Jacqueline Suzanne… Suzette Anita…." Sputtered the poor man incorrectly. Jackie on the other hand looked a bit cross at him for forgetting her full name after it had just been spoken and snarked,

"Oh, just carry on. It's good enough for Lady Di." It was funny what went through your head at the oddest times, out of all the things that she could be thinking about her father she whispered to the Doctor,

"I thought he'd be taller." The Doctor just smirked at Rose's comment; obviously she had built up quite the picture of this man in her head over the years growing up. He wondered if poor Pete could live up to her expectations.

The ceremony went on as planned and the two young people at the front of the room were married. Rose and the Doctor then filed out along with the other guests and made their way back to the TARDIS. The Doctor was pleased that the whole incident had gone off without a problem and even more amused that Rose's father had messed up Jackie's name and how scared Peter had seemed for doing so. The Doctor guessed that when human or Time Lord he had not been the only being afraid of Jackie's wrath. Rose on the other hand should have been satisfied. She had seen both her parents during… well, relatively happier times and asking for anymore would probably seem ungrateful or greedy. Still whatever forces pulled her made her speak up to the Doctor for yet another time,

"Doctor…" said Rose as they entered the TARDIS.

"Hmm?" Asked the Doctor, turning to her as he neared the console.

"My Mum told me that he died so close to home. He died but nobody was there, not Mum, a friend, no one. It was a hit and run driver and they never found out who. He was dead when the ambulance got there… She wished….she wished if only there'd been someone there for him." The Doctor leaned up against the console and Rose looked up pleadingly into his icy blue eyes.

"I want to be that someone, so he doesn't die alone." Declared Rose to the Time Lord and he let out a sigh, to be honest he had seen this coming. Rose seemed dead set on setting herself up to view a tragedy and he found that he was powerless to refuse her. Especially powerless when he looked back into her sad and beseeching hazel eyes, his hearts ached to please her. He tightened his lips rolled his neck to the left, he would do it for her. And if he were honest with himself he'd probably do anything for her.

"November the 7th?" Questioned the Doctor, and Rose answered knowing what he wanted to hear,

"1987." The Doctor pull a few levers and switches and the time rotor stated up.

The TARDIS materialized on a lonely street, called Waterley, between a telephone junction box and a road sign. Behind were the TARDIS landed were park railings making her look like a well placed normal, though disused, police call box. After the time ship had quieted down a familiar 80s tune could be heard playing somewhere on a nearby radio as The Doctor and Rose emerged from the TARDIS. The two found themselves greeted by an area that looked familiar to Rose but still very different and out of place. Concert ads and political propaganda contemporary to the time but so retro to Rose could be seen about on brick walls as if it were brand new, because it was. The young woman looked about and exhaled, it was a very nice day though a bit overcast but nothing special to any other day.

"It's so weird. The day my father died. I thought it'd be all sort of grim and stormy. It's just an ordinary day." Stated Rose aloud. The Doctor understood how Rose felt as he had on more than one occasion been faced with his own past days. Sometimes they weren't always as he remembered or expected them to be either.

"The past is another country. 1987's just the Isle of Wight. Are you sure about this?" Asked the Doctor again, as he looked to Rose. He wanted to make sure that she had readied herself for what she was about to do. Rose answered the affirmative and they made their way to the infamous Jordon Road where her father had met his untimely end.

The Two stood on a sidewalk that was protected by dividers from traffic and over looked the Powel Estate. Rose with a bit of grim humor on her voice declared,

"This is it. Jordan Road. He was late. He'd been to get a wedding present, a vase. Mum always said, that stupid vase." The Doctor could tell that Rose was very upset and he knew that Rose was wishing that she was somehow wrong about the events that would follow. They watched as the green car containing her father made its way up the street and parked just a few feet away from them. Rose had indeed been hoping against hope that he would not come. However, her father may have been late to the wedding but he was on time for his fate. Rose watched in horror knowing what would happen as if she had godlike powers of foresight. With a shaky voice she narrated to the Doctor what she knew too painfully was about to happen.

"He got out of his car" said Rose, "And crossed the road…Oh, God. This is it." She squeaked. The Doctor then without hesitation grabbed Rose's hand with his own and squeezed it tightly trying to give her as much comfort as he could. This would not be easy. He knew Rose had wanted to see this but he wished that she did not have to and wanted to shield her from any pain that he could in light of the circumstances. At least by holding her hand he could let her know that she was not going through this alone, at the moment they were a unit and he would share with her all the strength he had so that she could continue with what she had to do. Now that her father had pulled up to the kerb, he indeed got out of his car as if on cue. And as if also on cue the car that would run down her father came around the corner behind him. Pete closed his car door after removing the vase and did not see the car until it was practically on top of him and by then it was too late. Rose could not bear seeing her father being hit and shielded her eyes behind the Doctor's leather clad back as the car went straight into Pete. The driver shielded his face with his arm as if it would stop the horrible event from happening and ran over the poor man. Horrified at what he had done, the driver continued on leaving Pete and the vase that was in Pete's hand broken in the middle of the road. Barely alive Pete's broken body tried to move before falling still. Rose had lifted her head soon enough to watch her father lying helpless and twitching on the ground, shocked and unbelieving at what she had just witnessed. The Doctor leaned towards Rose's ear and softly and sympathetically announced,

"Go to him, quick." Rose however found that she could not obey the order given to her. Stunned she ran away from the scene. The Doctor followed her.

There had been another time when the two of them had been leaning up against a brick wall together but those had been under happy circumstances and this was most decidedly not a happy circumstance. Rose had stopped running as soon as she had turned the corner and began to break down. Rose was crying and the Doctor was standing there next to her stoically watching Rose's singular heart breaking into millions of possibly irreparable pieces from what she had seen. And he had been the one to bring her here. True she had asked to come but he could not help but feel responsible for providing the means to, yet again, break this poor woman's heart. He hoped that just his presence could provide some comfort to Rose so that again she would know that she was not alone experiencing this horrible event. Sirens began to approach in the distance and rose wiped her eyes and coughed,

"It's too late now. By the time the ambulance got there, he was dead." The Doctor looked at Rose's eyes with pity and a bit of worry he somehow knew what Rose would ask next.

"He can't die on his own. Can I try again?" Asked Rose practically begging. The Doctor was now very worried. This was dangerous territory that Rose was asking them to cross into. It was dangerous enough crossing your own personal timeline once let alone twice and now they would not only be crossing just Rose's timeline but his as well! Curse him for a sentimental fool with Rose that upset in front of him he could not say no and would probably break a hundred rules of time just to make her happy. Still if they were careful enough they could pull it off. It would be risky, okay that was an understatement, it could become a paradoxical catastrophe that could possibly rip the universe in two, but it was do able. If they were very careful and stuck to what semblance of the rules was left. And he was kidding himself if he was going by any rules at all at this point. If the Time Lords were still around he probably would be forced to regenerate twice after this.

Soon the Doctor and Rose found themselves looking round the corner of a brick wall to see their past selves by the kerbside waiting for poor Pete to be plowed down yet again by fate. Rose was so fixed on the event happening in front of her that she did not seem to notice how physically uncomfortable and jumpy her husband looked. He knew this was dangerous, he knew this was foolish and looked about as if something else was going to go wrong at any minute and destroy them all. He was literally risking all of existence for the sake of Rose's happiness. Something in the back of his head told him that was what love was, but he shooed that though away, he had other things to focus on. Like telling Rose exactly how not to get them all erased from existence.

"Right, that's the first you and me. It's a very bad idea, two sets of us being here at the same time. Just be careful they don't see us. Wait till she runs off and he follows, then go to your dad." Instructed the Doctor in a low, nervous, but commanding voice. Rose felt her heart sink as she watched herself watching her father park is car at the kerb and heard her past self talking.

"I can't do this." Breathed Rose with tears in her eyes as she gripped the brick wall they hid behind. The Doctor knew that they had only a small window of opportunity for Rose to do this and she needed to decide now so in a warning voice the Doctor explained to Rose,

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to, but this is the last time we can be here." Rose was now breathing heavy at the weight that information put on her and a thousand thoughts were circling in her head. She knew what she had to do. She had to preserve the timeline. But at the same time she could do something to save a man who was in her power to save. Could she really just stand there and do nothing to stop a man from dying. She knew that it was wrong and against what the Doctor had told her but as she watched her father get out of that green car and the other car approach, she suddenly did not care anymore and as fast as she could she sprinted out into the street and uncaringly past her and the Doctor's earlier selves.

"Rose! No!" Shouted the Doctor in vain as Rose pushed her father out of the path of the car that would have killed him. The car drove past harmlessly and the vase her father had been holding rolled unbroken on the ground. The earlier versions of the Doctor and Rose looked at each other confused before vanishing from existence.

Rose and Pete lay in the street in a messy heap on top of each other and Rose stared in disbelief at her father who was not dead. He was alive and still breathing! Wow!

"I did it. I saved your life." Said Rose not believing her own words as she continued to stare wide eyed and mouth slacked at the amazing feat she had accomplished. Pete pulled himself up off the street a bit flustered but was getting his wits back quickly and he declared as he pointed at the car that would have hit him,

"Blimey, did you see the speed of it? Did you get his number?"

"I really did it. Oh, my God, look at you. You're alive! That car was going to kill you." Shouted Rose as she pointed in the direction of the car but without taking her eyes off her father. Pete looked scandalized and scoffed,

"Give me some credit, I did see it coming. I wasn't going to walk under it, was I?" Rose laughed a bit to herself at this statement and rather bluntly and without thinking began to introduce herself.

"I'm Rose." She stated excitedly to which Pete smirked and declared,

"That's a coincidence. That's my daughter's name." Rose couldn't smile any wider still drunk on adrenaline of her save and smiled,

"That's a great name. Good choice. Well done." Rose continued to smile and stare at the man. It was as if she was meeting a favorite celebratory and she couldn't stop 'geeking out'. Feeling a bit awkward from the silence the man a bit uncomfortably piped up,

"Right, I'd better shift. I've got a wedding to go to." Rose who was all in the know and not wanting yet to let her father out of her sight asked,

"Is that Sarah Clarke's wedding?" Pete seemed surprised again at the coincidence and replied,

"Yeah, are you going?" Rose nodded 'yes' and that was when the bubble Rose had been in popped. Pete pointed behind him and inquired towards the man she was clearly with,

"You and your boyfriend need a lift?" Rose looked behind her and saw that the Doctor was looking quite icy, standoffish and more quietly angry than she had ever seen him before. And not only that he looked as if he were wondering just what he was doing there with her. Rose felt an overpowering dread that she had done something very wrong. If she wanted to save herself from the feeling that the Doctor might disappear any minute and that she had inexcusably disappointed and betrayed the Doctor's trust then she had to focus completely, from this moment, on her father and putting up a wall of denial around herself. The journey back to the Tyler flat was looking to be a very quiet and very uncomfortable trip.

Pete a bit warily opened the door to his flat and let his two guests in. He was no fool and could clearly tell that there was something between his two guests that were bothering them as he placed the vase in the corner table next to the door. Weddings always seemed to put a lot of stress on a couple he thought. All couples, not just the ones getting married. Something was brewing between these two and he was just going to stay out of the way and be the best host that he could. He was in a hurry himself and had to get things moving unless he wanted to be late to said wedding and bring the wrath of his wife down on him. Walking down the hall into his living room he showed the two around and began to speak quickly,

"Right, there we go. Sorry about the mess. If you want a cup of tea, the kitchens just down there, milk's in the fridge. Well, it would be, wouldn't it? Where else would you put the milk? Mind you, there's always the window sill outside. I always thought if someone invented a window sill with special compartments, you know, one for milk, one for yogurt, make a lot of money out of that. Sell it to students and things. I should write that down." Pete realized that he was musing again about nothing and that his two guests, although nodding their heads politely, probably were as time conscious as him about the wedding in a half hour. Rose on the other hand wasn't actually time conscious at all and was staring at her father amazed, hanging on his every word and thinking how clever her father was.

"Anyway, never mind that, excuse me for a minute. Got to go and change." Said Pete as he excused himself and walked into his bedroom to go change into his Sunday best. Now alone Rose looked about her former home and how different it was from how it was in the future. Rose couldn't help but notice that the Doctor was still very silent and had not said two words since she had saved her father. She also couldn't help feeling that he was evaluating her or observing her like he was trying to figure her out. Whatever it was he was doing she hoped that she would past that evaluation. The Doctor leaned up against the door frame that led into the living room and Rose looked about for a distraction. She found it on a little table in a corner.

"All the stuff mum kept. His stuff. She kept it all packed away in boxes in the cupboard. She used to show me when she'd had a bit to drink. Here it is, on display. Where it should be." She looked back at the Doctor, still glaring at her and she nervously picked up yet another item for 'show and tell' to the Doctor.

"Third prize at the bowling. First two got to go to Didcot." Rose explained to the still quiet Doctor. Rose even more nervous for him to say something looked to another corner and pointed out some bottles of liquid.

"Health drinks. Tonics, mum used to call them. He made his money selling this Vitex stuff. He had all sorts of jobs. He was so clever." Again nothing from her husband-friend and she spotted another thing on the table to point out.

"Solar power. Mum said he was going to do this. Now he can." Declared Rose as she proudly showed off her father's accomplishments to the silent man. At this point Rose was trying to trick herself into thinking that the Doctor was angry at her for any other reason than changing the course of time herself, something that she had seen him do on many occasions however he saw fit. So it couldn't have been that big a deal if he did what she had done practically every day. There was something else that he could be irritated about, maybe that was it. She went for the most obvious.

"Okay, look I know you don't like labels, I'll tell him you're not my boyfriend…You can just be my friend if husband is too…" The Doctor had had enough of this human's antics. He had thought he knew her but now was not so sure and he interrupted her sentence. He had been thinking for a while now trying to analyze Rose's actions from the whole day which seemed to planned to him. He had put up with Rose until now as he mulled over the data of what just happened and now he would voice his suspicions.

"When I offered you a chance to come with me I used time travel as a selling point, so you would come with me. I said travel with me in space and then I said time machine. Did you want to come just because I was willing to ask you twice or did what I could offer have a different appeal to you? If I had just said space would you have come or was this all…?"

"You really are daft. Aren't you? I don't think you know a thing about me! Or how I feel about you and quite frankly I don't know how you couldn't! It's not like I keep it all locked away and hidden like you do all the time." Hissed Rose interrupting the Doctor right back. She was now sure that he didn't have a clue as to how she felt about him. Didn't he remember anything about her from his time as John? Was that not enough that he still questioned her love for him? This was a painful topic but onto the matter at hand, her father, which was what this current argument was really about.

"It wasn't some big plan to save him. I just saw it happening and I thought, I can stop it." Explained Rose trying to look justified in her composure. The Doctor just rolled his eyes. Yes he agreed, he didn't think he knew a thing about her, not now after what she just pulled.

"I did it again. I picked another stupid ape. I should've known. Why do I even bother with your species when there are plenty others more evolved? It's not about showing you the universe. It never is. It's about the universe doing something for you." He growled back just as frustrated with himself as he was with Rose. Why couldn't he find one human that just wanted to see the universe and not want to bend it to their own advantage? And he always brought it on himself, it was like he couldn't help doing it. Rose wasn't going to take this attack sitting down and argued back,

"So it's okay when you go to other times, and you save people's lives, but not when it's me saving my dad." The Doctor thought this a poor excuse and snapped back,

"I know what I'm doing, you don't. Two sets of us being there made that a vulnerable point." How could he make her understand how little she understood about the dangers of time travel? The only reason he could move about with seemingly very little worry and ease was that he usually followed the rules and had said rules drilled into his head from infancy. He also had his time sense so he knew what events had to remain unchanged and what events could be changed a little. He only made it look easy and he worried that his carefree appearance made his human companions take their safety while time traveling with him for granted.

"But he's alive!" argued Rose back, she didn't understand how her father not being dead was a bad thing. The Doctor desperately needed Rose to understand and appreciate what it was she had done wrong. He decided to go down a painful path of memories just to give her a similar comparison. And it was indeed painful to remember how one could possess so much power and still be unable to do anything with it.

"My entire planet died. My whole family. Do you think it never occurred to me to go back and save them?" Asked the Doctor of the human woman. If he could just do that he wouldn't be the lonely last of his species, he'd have his family and be complete, but he just couldn't do that. For the sake of preserving the universe and all timelines, he simply could not! The damage he could cause would be too great and too risky. Rose on the other hand was still trying to rationalize and justify her actions to the Doctor,

"But it's not like I've changed history. Not much. I mean he's never going to be a world leader. He's not going to start World War Three or anything." The young woman reasoned. 'Like yelling at a brick wall,' the Time Lord thought in frustration. The Doctor tried again to make Rose understand the damage she had done and declared,

"Rose, there's a man alive in the world who wasn't alive before. An ordinary man. That's the most important thing in creation. The whole world's different because he's alive. Do you even realize how drastically this could change the future? The changes that would make to your own personal timeline alone should be bone dead obvious even to a human! Everything is different because he is still breathing." Rose knew what he was saying but she also understood what it implied and she couldn't believe what the Doctor would rather want.

"What, would you rather him dead?" She accused her husband-friend. Her Father being alive was obviously a problem to the Doctor. The Doctor looked even more frustrated by the difficult situation. Did Rose even realize the spot she was unfairly putting him in? Wondered the Time Lord as he answered,

"I'm not saying that." Rose was also frustrated by what she viewed as the Doctor's apparent lack of empathy toward her father. Everything was boiling over from not only the situation at hand, but also from her anger and aggravation with her relationship with the man who was suppose to be her husband. The man who did everything in his power to confuse her and her feelings since he had changed back to his true self. He had made her feel isolated while at the same time making her feel cared for. Who then would in what seemed like just a few seconds later make her feel neglected and in limbo. The Doctor wanted her near up to a point but refused to commit any further beyond that. He was distant, but at the same time possessive and she never knew what he felt or how she should behave or feel towards him. She felt more like a kept human pet or curiosity than a wife and her emotions now exploded into what she said next in response to his argument over the dangerous effect of saving one man who happened to be the one who should have been the most important man in her life growing up, her father.

"No, I get it! For once, you're not the most important man in my life. And you can't stand it. You just want to keep me to yourself but you don't know what else to do with me, only that you don't want to share me with anyone else! You won't admit it but you can't do without me and you think that I'm lost without you. Well you know what? I was surviving just fine on my own and I was taking care of myself long before you swanned into my life and turned it upside-down! I'm a survivor. I survived 20 years on my own, in not the best of conditions, and I would have survived the 50 or so years more until I dropped dead on my own too. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't sometimes wonder if I would have been better off if…" Shouted Rose but she never got to finish as the Doctor piped up,

"Fine if that's how you feel…Let's see how you get on without me, then. Give me the key." Demanded the Doctor putting out his hand for her key. Rose looked at his open hand in confusion for a moment as to what he meant and then the Doctor continued,

"The TARDIS key. If I'm so insignificant, give it back to me." Rose looked shocked at the implications of what he was demanding, but only for an instant before scoffing back,

"All right then, I will." Rose wasn't scared by the gesture or at least thought that she wasn't at the time as she slapped the key into his palm in a huff. 'He's just trying to scare me and I'm not falling for it,' thought Rose to herself as she watched him pocket the key.

"You've got what you wanted, so that's goodbye, then." Announced the Doctor as he began to leave the flat. 'She just doesn't get it,' thought the Doctor spent by their exchange. Rose couldn't help but run the comparison in her head that he had said the exact same thing to Adam before he went back into the TARDIS and washed his hands clean of him. Probably to convince herself as much as him she cut in front of his path and shouted,

"You don't scare me. I know how sad you are. You'll be back in a minute, or you'll hang around outside the TARDIS waiting for me." The Doctor then without saying a word or looking back left the apartment walking out into the open air.

"And I'll make you wait a long time!" Shouted Rose and probably forgetting that she, her current self, did not yet actually live in the apartment slammed the door behind him. Rose now emotionally spent leaned her back heavily against the adjacent wall and exhaled deeply while staring at the floor.

"Boyfriend trouble?" Asked Pete as he poked his head out of his room and looked at the upset blond woman leaning up against his hallway wall. Rose just looked at the floor and wondered what to do next.

Author's Notes:

Well this conversation had been a long time coming, don't you think? A little time apart would do this unlikely couple some good at this point…right? Tell me what you think because I was really looking forward to getting to this episode.