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Chapter 2 – Shopping

Rose and The Doctor transported down to the planet's surface. It was evening. They appeared on a platform near a boardwalk that lay next to a river. The river had a large fountain in the center that sprayed water high into the air. Multicolored lights illuminated the area.

The large city lay directly in front of them. Rose could see tall buildings lit up in front of her. One was in the shape of an oval that seemed to arch across its footprint on the ground. In the sky above, there were many flying vehicles of various shapes and sizes. The air was warm and humid. It seemed to have just rained moments before they had arrived.

The Doctor held Rose's hand and he lead her off of the platform. She was wearing a cute pink shirt which came above her knees and a lacey white top. She wore her hair down and pushed it to the side of her shoulder. Much to The Doctor's insistence, she was also wearing some pink low-top trainers he had purchased for her back in London months ago. She hadn't worn them yet because she had been on bed rest for so long and simply hadn't had the opportunity.

The Doctor was wearing a pair of his familiar jeans, and a t-shirt he had gotten from a concert he had attended with Tony Stark months ago. They walked on the large footpath towards the city.

He could feel Rose's excitement. She hugged his arm as she looked around. "Oh, this is better than I thought it would be! Wow! Is this a park?"

"It's an arrival park. For people who need to transport down. It gives you a safe place to land where you won't bump into anyone."

"You can't just transport anywhere? That's how they do on the telly."

"Oh, the mad telly rarely gets it right. Imagine how rude that would be just to pop in the middle of a hallway in a shopping area. Or how risky it would be in a restaurant if people decided not to pay the bill and just transported away. I mean, geez. The reality is, you can't just transport anywhere. They have scramblers that prevent the signal from forming in certain places. Make sense?"

Rose giggled, "I've never thought about that. It does make sense."

He smiled back at her. "Out on our own. Isn't this nice?"

He could feel she was so happy she was about to burst. "This is amazing! I'm so happy to be anywhere! But, to be here? Alone? With you? Oh, this is the best. Thank you."

He stopped, took both of her hands in his and smiled at her. "No need to thank me. I'm sorry I haven't brought you someplace like this before."

People of different species walked around nearby them. Rose looked at them. She looked back at him, "This is so much better than Platform One."

He smiled as he put his hand on her cheek. He leaned down and kissed her proper. He smiled as he quietly told her. "Yeah, I really question why I took you there. Temporary insanity?"

Rose raised her eyebrows at him, "Temporary?"

Rose laughed as they turned and started to walk towards the city again. Rose was hugging his arm as he slipped his hand in his pocket as they strolled along.

"Is this where you took Dad?"

He shook his head. "We never made it over here. But, I thought you would like to see it this way. Walking in the park towards the city. It is lovely."

Rose laughed, "Oh, it is! Wow!"

"And the best part is….." He pointed in the sky. "No, Zeppelins! Man, I hate Zeppelins!"

Rose laughed at him. "Finally decided you are going to hate them, huh?"

He grumbled. "Oh, that's been coming on for a long while. I just hate them. Can't even help it. Can't even explain it."

Rose smiled at him and took his hand.

He pointed at the buildings in front of them. "That is a large shopping center. There's a restaurant I'd like to take you to up in one of these tall buildings. Which would you like to do first?"

"Well, we probably need to shop first. Before everything closes." Rose reasoned.

"Phhh…. Shopping doesn't close here. I've always found that strange of Earth. They are one of the few planets that do that."

"Really? When do the workers go home and rest?"

"They change out workers five different times a day! The day here is a bit longer than Earth's. So, don't worry about that. Shopping? Or eating, first?"

Rose couldn't deny her surprise at him offering to take her shopping. "Do you want to go shopping? I remember when I had to take you shopping for clothes. You hated it."

He groaned, "I did. Because I knew what was available there. Ugh, I want to pick up some stuff here. More comfortable, breathable fabrics that are sewn together in the right places. I'm definitely getting myself some more pants tonight! I can't take those from Earth one more minute."

Rose could feel his enthusiasm. "Just two girls out shopping then?"

He laughed, "Oh, I love a little shop. So, shopping first?"

"Sure. Lead away."

He nodded his head. "Yes, ma'am!"

They walked a bit more until they reached the grand entryway of a building. The large glass doors slid open as they walked inside. The first thing Rose saw was an octopus-looking creature sitting at a round desk. She smiled and covered her mouth in surprise.

He looked at her and smiled. "Pete was surprised by this, too."

He walked over to the creature and spoke a strange language to her. Rose thought that she smiled as she explained something to The Doctor. He rubbed his beard and took out his wallet to show her something. She nodded her head and gave him a piece of plastic and a small, blue box about as large as a cigarette lighter. He slipped it into his pocket and seemed to thank her. He led Rose away from the desk as they walked over to the side of the hallway.

Rose could see just beyond them were floors and floors of stories with little shops everywhere. People floated, and some flew, up the center of the circular huge room. Little shops were everywhere you looked. Rose wished she had three more sets of eyes. There were so many things to see.

He showed her the bit of plastic. "Okay, this is a map. This place is absolutely huge, but we can get everything we need here. We won't try to go everywhere tonight. I know you said you were sore, so tell me if it gets too bad. I've mixed up some medicine you can use to help with that while we are here. And remember, we're here all week and we can come back before we leave. I have a transport pod for the entire time now, so we don't have to worry about carrying anything that's too big."

"Wait. What?" Rose asked him.

"Well, we talked about getting something for Sam to play with."

"No, to sleep in. That's what we talked about."

"Well, yeah. That too."

She giggled at him.

He shook his head, "I'm not going to carry that around. I also want to look at some big items that I need for the ship that will be impossible to carry back. In places like this, you reserve a pod that the shops put all of your stuff in, then you transport it back up to the cargo hold of your ship. Makes you get more stuff. It's all part of their evil plan to make you get more stuff."

"Right. I'm sure."

He looked at the map. "Let's look for Sam's stuff, first. But, if you see any place you want to pop into, we can. Alright?"

"Sounds fine."

They found all sorts of things for Sam in the little shop they went into. They ended up getting him a small, oval cot that he could lay in while it vibrated and pulsed like he was still inside of the womb. They also found all sorts of clothes and nappies that looked to be more comfortable than the ones they had from Earth. The Doctor also grabbed several teething toys to save his finger from Sam's teeth once they started to come in. "You won't let me get him a stick."

Rose shook her head. "You know, we can get some of this stuff back home-"

"Nah, let's just get it here. That way we won't have to worry about it later. We've not gotten much of anything for him. Just the bare basics."

"I suppose we were just too scared?"

"I suppose so." He agreed, then had the realization. "I know what we need to get for him. Something with lights. He loves looking at lights."

The Doctor turned and spoke to the sales clerk in a language that Rose didn't recognize. She smiled at him and led them over to an area that had a lot of round, fluffy, stuffed balls in it. The Doctor seemed thrilled to see them.

"This is what we need! Look at this, Rose. It's a light you put in the baby's crib. It will display all around the room. But, it also is an alarm if the baby stops breathing or needs your attention. These things are loud as hell." He handed it to the clerk and smiled.

"We're both joined to him. We'd know if something was wrong." Rose reasoned.

He shook his head, "Yeah, but we're not always the one with him. Yes! This is what we need." He said as he tossed it in the air and caught it.

Rose smiled at him. "I'm surprised you are finding this so enjoyable."

"Stuff that we need, that I feel will be safe. Not like the madness they sell back on Earth." He told her.

They visited several other shops. Rose giggled at him as he picked up ten bags of pants in various colors. "Comfort will be mine at last."

"Seriously? You need that many? That's like a hundred pair!"

"Nah, Lewis asked me to get him some. Turns out he prefers these, too."

They visited a sweets shop next. Rose was reminded of elves from the North Pole as they watched the tiny creatures bustle around the kitchen as they made the sweets in front of the crowd that had gathered. All sorts of odd things that were brightly colored and smelled delicious were in cases throughout the shop. Rose wasn't surprised when The Doctor got several boxes of things, but also took a small bag of multicolored sweets. "I'm going to have them put the boxes in our pod, but these we'll eat before dinner. Here have some. You'll like these."

Rose took a sweet and popped it in her mouth. "It takes like a cherry jelly bean."

He smiled at her. "Wait. Okay. Now, tell me what it tastes like."

Rose thought as she rolled the hard sweet around in her mouth. "Okay, this is weird. It's like a pineapple now. Hang on. Now it's a mint."

He popped one in his mouth and smiled. "These are so good. They change every few seconds. So, it's like a different sweet."

Rose saw a shop she was interested in that had clothing. They went inside and she found several things she liked. He sat down in a chair and let her shop while he ate the sweets they had just got.

"You are going to spoil your dinner." She fussed at him as he popped another sweet in his mouth and smiled.

"Maybe this is my dinner, mum."

She smiled back at him. "I wish I could try some of these on. I don't know how it would fit on me."

He rubbed his beard. "Let me get you some help. I'm sure there is a room for that." He snapped his fingers and a small, grey woman, with glasses on the end of her very long nose appeared next to The Doctor. She smiled and bowed.

"How may I help you, sir?" she asked.

Rose was surprised. "She speaks English?"

The Doctor smiled and shook his head. "No. She has a universal translator on her someplace." He looked at the woman. "Madam. My wife would like to try on these clothes to see if they fit her properly. Is there a place where we can do that?"

The woman bowed to Rose, "Certainly. Please. Both of you, come this way."

She took the clothes from Rose and led them to the dressing room. Rose noticed the woman's feet moved extremely fast for no faster than she walked. She pointed at her legs as they walked behind her. The Doctor grabbed her hand and smiled at her. 'Now. Think of what you must look like to her.'

The woman opened the door to a room that was ten times larger than any dressing room Rose had ever seen in her life. There were mirrors inside and two chairs. The lady walked in and hung up the clothes for Rose. She then turned and smiled at her and offered her hands out. "I am happy to assist you."

The Doctor shook his head. "It's alright. I'll be able to do that. Thank you."

The woman smiled and bowed her head. "Please let me know if you need anything else, Doctor Smith." She closed the door as she stepped out.

Rose turned around and looked surprised. "Okay, I've never had anyone offer to assist me in getting dressed before. Really?"

He smiled like a loon at her. "And lucky I'm here to help!"

Rose shook her head. "Seriously, I'm a grown woman. I can dress myself. Is this really a problem in the galaxy?"

"It's a cultural thing with some people. People of certain social standing never dress themselves. She sees my identification and assumes we are people like that."

Rose pointed at him, "She called you Doctor Smith. How does she know who you are?"

He sighed, "I got a pod. It notifies the store who we are when we enter."

Rose shook her head as she unfastened her skirt. He quickly walked over and helped her take it off. "That's just odd. A bit like Big Brother."

"Oh, geez. Just don't even worry about it. I'm sure it's another marketing ploy at work here." He helped her take off her shirt. He stepped back and ran his eyes up and down her body as he rubbed his beard.

Rose smiled at him. "Are you going to help me get dressed?"

"Oh, so close to the perfect sentence." He complained as he took a dress and helped Rose into it. She turned to look in the mirror. She noticed him looking at her again. She could sense what he was feeling.

She turned around and pointed at the chair in the corner. "You. Go over there and sit. I'm trying on clothes. Not doing that at the moment."

He smiled as he sat down in the chair and popped another sweet in his mouth. "At the moment! That sounds promising."

Rose shook her head as she turned to look back in the mirror in front of her. "This is alright. What do you think?"

He didn't say anything. She could feel his happiness turn into surprise, anger, and disappointment. She turned around to look at him. He seemed to be daydreaming with a harsh look on his face, "What's wrong?"

He looked at her as if he had just noticed she was there. He shook his head. "Ummm. I just found out something. I'm trying to decide if I want to be angry about it not."

Rose became immediately nervous. Had he found out what she had done? He looked at her. "Now, you are all nervous. I'm sorry. Ugh." He took her hand and kissed it. "Don't worry about this. We'll talk about later. I don't want it to spoil our night. Go back and try on your clothes. It's alright."

Rose walked back to the mirror. She turned around and looked at him. He looked at her and laughed, "What is it? You are so damn tense lately. Do you think I'm one of the children who need to be worried about?"

Rose smiled at him as she shook her head. "Of course I do. You will always be the one that needs the most supervision in this family."

He relaxed as he stretched out his legs. He popped more of the sweets in his mouth. "Yep. I'm the biggest liability round here, for sure."

She took off her dress and handed it to him to put back on the hanger. He enjoyed watching her put back on another dress as she turned around and modeled it for him.

He smiled as he rubbed his chin. "I like that one! Yes. That's a keeper."

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