A/N: Short and fast fluffy one today. I think we're ready for this fic to stop procrastinating and make it's move. Rassilon, if I don't, this thing will go on forever...
I chose the snippets below for two reasons: One, people wanted to know what the message from Ten was, and so it's there in a bit of a racy first part of the chapter... And then two: Because I need a couple of fluffy bits of nonsense before the next chapter when it all goes to hell.
So anyway. This is a three-part-wade into the Domestics of Rose and the Doctor on Gallifrey. Short and hopefully sweet. Straight fluff, sorry if it isn't quite your thing...
I hope you enjoy.
~~oooOOOooo~~
The swimming inside her mind was finally subsiding after what felt like an eternity, and her hitching breath slowly levered out to normal. She gulped and tongued the roof of her mouth in an attempt to wet it again. The lock of every single one of her muscles finally gave way to have her almost flop heavily on the mattress below her.
"God," she managed almost weakly with breath still panting in a chest that actually ached. She held a fist at her chest, her other arm still over her head, clutching at her pillow.
There was movement underneath the sheet covering her belly, and she looked downward. The sheet flipped up and the flush face of her husband appeared just over her navel, hooded by the soft pink cotton fabric.
"Not quite," he husked back with a small smile as he used the length of his forearms either side of her to climb up the length of her body to bring himself nose to nose with her. He kept himself high atop her, not quite ready to touch skin to skin just yet, lest he be completely overwhelmed by the contact. "So… err?"
"M-Message received," she stammered out with a swallow and an almost intimidated look up at him through her brows. "Did-Did he really tell you to do that … like that?"
He nodded. There was a somewhat unreadable expression on his face. "He was quite specific in his instructions," he answered. "And based upon those very specific instructions, I will assume this isn't the first time I've engaged in such with you … I mean in my future, of course."
"Can we not talk about your future," she asked softly. "Despite what you think, you're not either of 'em." She lifted a hand to draw her fingers down along his jaw. "Love with you, it's diff'rent to how it was with him … and I love what we have now as much as I loved what I had with him." She shook her head. "We don't need to merge the two, yeah?"
He actually exhaled a relieved breath. "You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that," he admitted. "I can give you all of me, but I don't know if I can give you any of him." His lip twitched. "Well. Aside from adding that to the repertoire, of course. Much more enjoyable than I thought it would be."
"So, Doctor," she said with a light wriggle below him. "Do you need me to send a message back – or should I say forward along your timeline?" Her eyes flicked downward and then back up.
For a second his head angled to one side with question. Then his eyes widened and he shook his head. "No. Not at all necessary, and quite frankly a waste of your time," he said with as good a shrug as he could manage while leaning on his forearms.
She rolled her eyes. "Gee. You make it sound like I'm no good at it."
He laughed and pushed himself up with one arm to be able to fall onto the mattress at her side. He looked toward the ceiling, lifted a knee with a wide parting of his legs, and put his hand underneath his head in a perfectly lazy slouch. "I expect you'd be very good at it, but it's simply not as effective a means of arousal as it is with your kind." He turned his head to look at her. "A pleasant massage, no doubt, but that's about it. I can't achieve climax without you, you know that."
"You know," she purred as she pulled the sheet to her chest with a clutch of her fist between her breasts and rolled to face him. She wriggled her shoulder to move closer to him. "We need to keep this a secret from the Human race. If the girls back home found out that they'd be guaranteed a ride into the heavens each and every time they get a shag from a Time Lord, then Gallifrey would be inundated with prowling human females."
"They'd have to be able to achieve space travel ability first," he remarked with a smirk.
"Don't you think they wouldn't suss that out in five seconds flat," she countered with a snicker. "You'd be surprised at just how quickly the world's greatest mysteries can be solved when they've got incentive like that." Her eyes widened. "Can you imagine? The worlds greatest aerospace scientists can't figure it out, but a hoard of frisky women left unsated by their human counterparts, rampaging into the NASA facility with their glue guns and sparkles, building a sequined shag ship with a big sign on it saying Gallifrey or Bust!"
That made him laugh. He rolled his head to look at the ceiling again. "I can actually picture that scenario perfectly, and believe it to be a wholehearted and very real possibility. But, of course, then they'd have to find themselves a Time Lord willing to..." he held up a finger. "Wait, let me get this right." He cleared his throat and adopted the best imitation of his brother's voice. "Willing to engage in the disgusting, reprehensible act of physical mating. Abhorrent practice that it is."
"Oh he's all hot air and talk that one," she scoffed. "Don't think for a second that he and Romana aren't.."
"Please don't," he barked out with an urgent wince. "I really don't need that image torturing my quite frankly very vivid mind." He drew a hand down his face. "It's bad enough that I know them to be a bonded pair, but a mated one?" He shook his head. "No. That's just too much…"
"You know they are," she continued to tease.
He huffed with a shake in his head and hauled himself up to a seat. "And on that rather indelicate note, we should head back to Gallifrey ourselves." He turned and leaned over the edge of the bed to retrieve his pants and trousers. "We need to rescue our son from their clutches." He lifted off the mattress to redress.
Rose rolled onto her belly and propped up on her elbows to watch him. "Hardly a rescue situation," she corrected with a smile. She scuffled forward toward his naked butt. While he was bent forward to step into his pants, she stretched her neck to place a kiss on one cheek. She smiled at his pause. "Mark's in very good hands, remember. And the longer they have him, the more exhausted he'll be when we pick him up." She pursed her lips to a pucker. "And it's not like we get too many opportunities to be just you an' me, what with your work at the hospital and all keeping you away from me."
He only had one foot in his grey boxer briefs. With a kick of that foot to extricate himself from them, he spun on the other foot and face her. "That, my dear, is a very good point." He crawled onto the bed, hovering over her once again. "Best we don't waste it…"
~~oooOOOooo~~
Rose winced as she tried desperately to control her breathing, which was coming at her in heaved pants. Her inhales drew in quietly, but her exhales contained whimpers and moans. The Doctor was pressed up against her back, his legs parted to surround her hips. He held her against him, his lips against her shoulder huffing lightly against her skin.
"I'm with you," he assured her gently. "I've got you."
"How can you say you've got me?" she asked with a growl. "There's no getting me right now, Doctor."
Jackie Tyler clicked her tongue in a tut toward her daughter. "Give himself a break, Darling," she advised sternly. "He's doing what he can right now." She held up her hand. "An' I know you're thinkin' it aint all that much, but it's the best he's got, so you be nice to 'im, okay?"
Rose glared at her mother though her brows. "I shouldn't have to be nice, Mum. Especially not to 'im." She hissed through her teeth and pulled forward to attempt to lean over her knees. "He did this to me, remember."
"Oh you did it to yourself as well," Jackie snapped. "You let him put his bits 'n' bobs in ya to have this one just like you did with the other one. You're just as much to blame for your circumstance as he is."
"But it's easy for him," she whined. "He just has to sit there all not in pain…"
He breathed against her shoulder. "Don't think that watching you go through all of this pain is easy, Rose. It's not. It's incredibly hurtful…"
"I'll give you hurtful!"
A young doctor; a fresh-faced intern specifically picked for this task by the Doctor a month ago, popped her face up over the sheet that tented over Rose's raised and parted knees. She gave the two expectant parents a smile. "When you're ready, Lady Rose. Give me a big push."
Rose looked half panicked as she lifted her head to look at her husband over her shoulder. "Are we really ready for this, Doctor? For another one?"
"Bit late for that question," Jackie muttered.
The Doctor took his wife's hand and lifted it up to curl her arm around the back of his neck. He leaned back and brought her along with him, cradling her belly with his other arm. "We've got this, Hearts. I promise you."
"I'm going to hate you in a second," she panted out desperately. "So let me tell you right now so you don't forget. I love you." She panted. "My heart beats for you," she repeated in his language just to drive that point home.
"And I love you," he confirmed, not bothering to repeat it inside his own language – it was better spoken in hers, anyway.
Rose took a deep breath and locked her arm around his neck. With an almighty cry, she bared down.
~~oooOOOOooo~~
The local news caster chatted with forced seriousness in a transmission from the Capitol. The Doctor looked up from his task on the floor in front of their television set, which took up nearly half the living room wall, to listen to the report. In between the triangle of his parted legs, a small female kicked little socked feet and babbled contentedly.
"Calm my little Cobblemouse," he cooed almost distractedly. He had a dirty nappy in one hand, and a wet wipe in the other, one held on each of his knees. "Papa needs to hear this."
Rose appeared at the entrance to the room, just off the kitchen. She wiped her hands on a dishtowel that was hanging over her shoulder. "What's happening?"
"Update from the Defense Council," he answered her. "Seems that they're losing control over the battle near Thrizun. Not enough support from the locals to exact a proper defense strategy against the Dalek forces."
"How far away is Thrizun?"
"About three-hundred thousand light years from here," he said with a sigh.
"Still a good ways from here, right?"
He nodded and then looked down at his daughter, who had rolled over and was ready to crawl her naked little dirty bottom away from him. He took hold of her ankle. "Not so fast, my little escapee," he chided softly. He leaned forward and picked her up with his hands underneath her arms. He turned her to lay her on her back between his knees. "Not until we have some protection over that little backside of yours." He pursed his lips. "Not making that mistake again."
"Need me to finish up so you can watch the rest of the news?" Rose offered as she tossed the towel over the back of a chair and stepped into the room.
"Nah, I've got a handle on it," he answered back with a chuckle as his daughter made bubbles with saliva on her lips. He wiped her lips with his thumb, and then wiped his thumb on his shirt. "I am the Doctor, the Oncoming Storm, the Champion of Time," he warned his child with a mock-stern glare. "I will not be brought down by a tiny little person, as cute as she is."
"Ha!" Rose laughed. "Alirra brings you to your knees on an hourly basis."
"That she does" he conceded with a sigh as he gripped both of her ankles in one hand to tuck a nappy underneath her bottom. He leaned down to her as he cleaned her up. "You have considerable power over me, just like your mother does. Use that power sparingly, my little darling."
Alirra giggled and thrust up a hand to grasp at her father's nose. She giggled a wide mouth sound of utter joy when he crossed his eyes and let out a little peep. "Oh no! She's got me! What am I to do now? I'm trapped!"
Rose let out a moan. "How does it take you so long to perform a task as simple as changing a nappy? Doctor, you've been on the floor with her for the past fifteen minutes."
He shrugged as he gave a powder bottle a squeeze to turn her bottom white with powder – far more than was necessary. "She's air-drying," he explained as he finally secured the nappy around her little bottom and wrangled on the bottom half of her onesie. Once zippered up, he lifted both hands high with a half cheer. "Freedom, little Time Lady, run while you can!" His face tightened as she rolled over and began to crawl away instead. "Okay. Then crawl away while you can."
Rose was chuckling as she walked around him and scooped up their wriggling daughter. She held her on her hip, juggling when the little one leaned around her with a pitiful whine, both hands extended toward her father, little fingers pumping. "Now now, Alirra, baby. Give Daddy a breather, yeah?" She looked to the Doctor, who was diligently putting away the items he'd used for a nappy change. "I'm going to go put her down for the night. Did you want to give Mark a hand with his homework? It's Block Transfer Mathematics, which is out of my league, unfortunately." She chuckled, still trying to wrangle young Alirra. "He thinks that I should probably be going to school with him because he didn't think it's right that he should end up smarter than I am at his age."
He drew himself to a stand and held out his arms. "I'm holding back my rebuttal to that one," he admitted with a wink. "Here, I'll take the little wriggly and tell her a quick story to get her down." He tipped his ear to the kitchen, where Mark was still at the table, his head resting on one fist as he tried to work though some problems. "Tell our little scholar to take a break. I'll help him out when Alirra's asleep." He kissed her cheek. "And you. Please. Put your feet up, you've been non-stop all day."
She watched him walk down the hallway, still wearing the crimson hospital scrubs he had left the house in that morning. "So have you, Thete," she said softly.
Her attention went back to the television as the newscaster moved back to the story of unrest just outside of Kasterborous. She leaned against the archway that led to the main hallway and gnawed on her thumbnail as she watched with growing unease settling in her belly.
"Despite assurances otherwise, a leaked memo from the DefenseCouncil suggests that the Dalek fleets being held near Thrizun represent only a small number of Daleks from a much larger fleet.At the time of this report, there doesn't yet appear to be any movement toward Kasterborous, but Council aren't ruling out the possibility that the Daleks may soon move into the outer reaches of the Kasterborean Constallation, and are monitoring all movements.
This could lead to confirmation of the translated prophesies of the Ancient Pythian texts predicting a universal battle for time, which has long been foretold as being: The Great Time War.
Requests for comment from the Office of the Lady President, and the DefenseCouncil have gone unanswered.Stay tuned for further information.Remember, Avrilinipia, your first source for news coverage for Gallifrey."
Rose's breath shuddered out of her as she watched the coverage of potential war shift toward Sports, and the results of the Hyper-Grav Ball tournament being held at Arcadia.
"Mum?"
Rose looked to her side, and to the floppy brown hair of her eldest child. At the age of seven, he now stood as tall as her waist. "What's up, Sweetheart?"
He pushed his hair from his eyes with a sweep of his hand. "Are we going to war with the Daleks?"
Rose frowned and dropped into a crouch to bring her to a much better level to talk to her child. "Why would you ask that?"
"It's on the news, and I heard the lecturers taking about it at school," he said with a worried crease in his brow. "Said that this would be the war to end all wars." He looked panicked for a moment. "Does that mean Dad will have to go and fight? I don't want him to go fight."
"Oh baby," she cooed as she pulled him into her arms and let him stumble against her. "Don't you worry about your father. I've known him for a long time, I even know his future incarnations…"
"But, they're saying it's been foretold by the Pythians?" He shuddered. "The war to end all wars."
She let him go to look up into his face. "They're just trying to sensationalise a story," she assured him. "They did that all the time on Earth when I lived there, too. Do you know how many war to end all wars, and world ending crises they talked about?" She smiled assuringly. "The Earth was supposed to be destroyed about ten times before I turned 18. I'm still here. Earth is still there. We're okay." She smoothed his hair with both hands. "And your Daddy will be okay, I promise you. So will Auntie Romana and Uncle Brax, and me and Alirra…"
"And Tiallu and Soliarn?"
The Doctor crouched down beside Rose and put a hand on his arm. "All of us, Mark. Nothing for you to worry yourself over. Even if the Daleks tried to get anywhere near Gallifrey," he added. "It'll be at least a couple of centuries from now, so don't you concern yourself like this."
"Thanks Dad," Mark gushed out. He threw his arms around his father's neck and breathed relieved breaths against his neck. He looked to his mother. "And Mum. You're both in my hearts."
"You too, baby," Rose said with a pet on his head as she drew herself to a stand. She looked down to the Doctor. "I'll call the school tomorrow and have a word with the office about their staff taking more care about what they say within earshot of the kids."
"No," he huffed angrily. "Let me do it instead, please." He tilted his head at her, his eyes pinching with analysis at her unusually discomforted posture. "Hearts? Are you alright?"
The single most dangerous question to ask a woman who was barely holding it together. The horror that the Time War was on approach was dawning in an horrific manner. She bit at her lip and fought back her emotions. With short movements of her head she nodded and pointed to the hallway. "Just gimme a minute, yeah?"
"Yeah," he drawled on a whisper, his concern for her evident. "Go. I've got him. I'll be there in a minute."
"I'm okay," she managed out. "Just … yeah… I'm good. I just need to have a shower, that's all."
"Right."
Rose spun and walked briskly toward their bedroom. She walked straight through toward their ensuite bathroom. She quickly closed the door behind her, snicked the lock, and covered her mouth with a hand as she moved to the shower to turn on the water. With the steam billowing up from the floor toward her face, she lifted both hands to cover her mouth. She hoped beyond hope that it would stifle the sound of her sob as she collapsed into a seat on the edge of the tub. She held at her belly with one arm and her mouth with the other and leaned forward, rocking herself through her own horror of what was to come.
It felt like hours, but it must've only been a handful of minutes before she heard the jiggle of his hand on the door handle. A second later she heard the buzz of his sonic screwdriver and the lock open under its command. The door opened and his head curled worriedly around the door.
"Oh my hearts," he breathed out when he saw her on the edge of the tub. He quickly stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. "What's wrong?"
She looked up at him, with both arms now holding her belly, with utter devastation in her eyes. She shook her head, her mouth gaping for words to say.
He didn't let her try and tell him she was fine, or try and blame her upset on hormones or any such nonsense. He fell to his knees and pulled her by the arm to have her fall onto his lap. He drew her arms around his neck and held them there with a gentle hold of her upper arms. "Don't shut me out, Rose," he ordered gently. "What's wrong?"
"I'm scared," she admitted finally. There was a break in her voice. "I'm just scared."
"Of the Daleks?" he asked with a pinch in his eyes.
She nodded.
"Unless there's something you know that the rest of us don't…" he began, not quite ending that thought just in case she wanted to tell him otherwise. The stillness in her frame worried him. "You don't, do you?"
She shook her head, unable to speak.
"Then you have nothing to be scared of," he told her in the same firm tone of vehemence that he'd used with their son. "Even if they could get here, Rose, it's a long way off – centuries."
"You could get there in seconds," she argued. "With the TARDIS."
"They don't have TARDISes," he reminded her. "And as far as I know, they haven't developed dematerialisation sequences to manage a journey like that." He tipped her chin upward with the crook of his finger. "I haven't seen you this upset since the day we met, Rose. Are you sure you don't know something that you aren't telling me?" His face hardened. "Is something going to happen? Do I need to get you and the kids free of here?"
She shook her head – tempting thought it was. "No, Doctor. I don't have anything to tell you." Gee, it disgusted her how easy it was to lie to him about this. "We never really talked about Gallifrey, or your life before you met me." She shrugged. "So no. I don't know anything."
"Then why are you so upset?"
"I don't want them sending you there," she managed finally. "I don't want them to take you from us to go and head up some wild fancy of theirs that it just takes you showin' up all Oncoming Storm to get rid of them all." She cleared her throat with a cough. "The Daleks, I mean. I – I don't want them sending you into battle."
"You say that like I'd let them," he countered with a smile. "I've no intention of being drawn into any battle – not when we have battle fleets here on Gallifrey and across Kasterborous."
"You let them when Mark was born," she reminded him. "Nearly lost you then…"
"And I learned my lesson," he promised her. "I'm not leaving you and the kids because Romana or Brax tells me Council want to send me in there. I'll leave Gallifrey with all of you before I answer a call like that."
"Promise me," she whispered firmly.
"I vow to you," he promised fiercely. Nose to nose, together they breathed hard breaths against the other. The Doctor finally spoke after a long and silent minute. "I know this is where I pick you up, take you to bed, and affirm my love for you for the rest of the evening and into tomorrow." He blew out a somewhat disappointed breath. "But I do have our son waiting in the kitchen for me to teach him the basics of Block Transfer Mathematics…"
"Nothing basic about it," she added with a light laugh.
"So if you're willing to give me an hour or so to sit with Mark and help with his homework, then we can pick this up again after he's gone to bed." He kissed her lightly on the lips, drawing it out just a bit longer than chaste. "Is that okay?"
"Go to him," she urged. "I can wait."
"Glad you can," he countered with a laugh. "Not too sure about my ability hold that much patience." He stood, picking her up along with him. He set her feet on the ground and kissed her again, this time full of promise of what was to come later. He left her breathless and swaying in place and walked to the door, pausing just short of exiting with a smile. "My hearts, Rose, they beat for you."
"I love you too."
~~oooOOOooo~~
Within the dome of the Capitol, inside a large vault in Omega's Arsenal, a once dormant metal box, gilded with gold gears and marked with language of the people of Gallifrey, whirred quietly to life. It shuddered in its place, alone in the darkness.
A whisper of a song in the language of the people of another planet whispered sang out quietly.
"Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf…."
