Back again! Sorry to leave on a cliffhanger, but the telepathy...did it work? I personally could barely right fast enough for them to reunite...

Giving Up

Rose hated Richard. She found him to be a slimy, pathetic man that she had the misfortune of knowing and being indebted to. She pitied his wife even more so, at least she had the excuse of going to her room to hide from him when he was too overbearing. But poor Lisa had a child with him, couldn't just up and leave him in this day and age.

At first Richard had only slightly creeped her out, she assumed he just found her attractive. Rose had noticed Richard watching her sometimes the first few weeks, but knew how much she owed him so hadn't done anything about it. After all, it was harmless and she had dealt with her fair share of men finding her attractive. Plus, she enjoyed playing with the adorable little Pamela and she considered Lisa to be a confidant even if they didn't have much to say to each other.

Still, Rose was at her wits end with Richard and his slimy moustache. It was the end of August and she had already paid rent for the room for the month, so she would definitely stay until the end of September at least. She had been talking to a few of the other young women she had met in her months living here, trying to see if any of them were interested in finding a roommate. So far her search had been unsuccessful, probably because her heart wasn't in it.

Currently Rose was doodling a cartoon of Richard at work, watching the clock tick down the last fifteen minutes of her dull day. She was surviving at work, but knew there would be no way for advancement. Her wages were decent, she supposed, for this day and age. But, honestly, she wasn't sure if this secretary job was worse than her old job at Henrik's, or if she just had higher expectations due to her time traveling on the TARDIS.

"Oi," called out Charles, jerking Rose out of her work-induced stupor. "Everyone is leaving early, so I think you can head out early."

Rose smiled, glad that she had a friend at work always watching out for her. After setting up solid relationship boundaries considering Rose's missing 'husband', she was very thankful for Charles. Most of the other men at work ignored her, but she knew that Charles saw her as an equal. "That's the best news I've heard all day," Rose responded eagerly, sending the blonde a wide smile.

"I'm honored," Charles retorted cheekily. "Say, my sister is thinking of moving out of my parent's house…. you're still looking for a roommate, right?"

"Yes!" Rose immediately responded, standing up and leaning towards Charles with interest. "I feel like I've overstayed my welcome with the Harvey's."

"That's what I was hoping you would say," her friend sighed, straightening his tie. "Say maybe you could come round this weekend and meet with everyone to work out the details?"

Surprised by how her day was turning around, Rose made the according plans with Charles. She felt a bit odd about the situation, hoping that Charles truly didn't have any feelings for her. Because, although she had resigned herself to accept that she was stuck in 1969, she knew her heart would never give up on the Doctor. However, in an effort to remain cheerful for Charles, Rose pushed any thoughts of the pinstriped man to the back of her mind.

"I'll see you tomorrow!" Rose called out to Charles as she set off walking back home on the usual time despite the delay of a possible roommate possibility.

Barely glancing at her surroundings, Rose quickly walked home, feeling oddly hopeful about her future. She was sure that in a few hours she would not be feeling the same way, but she figured she deserved to be happy right now. Happiness had been in short supply in the almost three months she had been stuck here.

In broad daylight, Rose pushed all her negative thoughts to the back of her mind. After her situation with Jimmy, her Mum had forced her to talk to a counselor for a few sessions until the cost had been too high. The one useful tactic she had learned was to stop dwelling on circumstances she couldn't change. But, after changing history in a time machine, Rose had a harder time rationalizing that there was nothing she could do to fix past mistakes. Though, from her memories, she didn't know what mistakes she could change.

She didn't like to think on it, but Rose allowed herself to remember the stone angels. She had no idea what had happened, didn't know if she would ever know. But somehow the angels, which she had naively thought were stone statues, had trapped her here without the Doctor. The Doctor had seemed to understand what was happening in the all too brief second they had locked eyes before she had been yanked away from him back to the past. His brown eyes had been wide with shock and, maybe it was just wishful thinking, fear for her. He had said something about blinking, but everything had happened so quickly that day that she couldn't be sure. It was all fuzzy around the edges, it gave her a pounding headache that stayed with her for days.

Before she knew it, Rose found herself in front of the Harvey home, wishing it was as welcoming as it appeared from the outside with its flowers and painted shutters. However, a sincere smile filled her face as she observed Pamela waving at her from the front window. Almost every day without fail the little girl waited for her to return home from work and play. It almost made living in the spare room worth it, Rose reasoned.

…

Rose had a reasonably decent time playing with Pamela as Lisa worked hard cooking dinner. But Rose felt terrible, actually giving up on the Doctor saving her by getting a real place of her own to live. It was hard, she didn't want to wait for him forever, but also knew it was her right to have a happy life. He would want that.

Just as Rose was starting to feel a bit better, the front door opened and Richard walked in, a frown on his face. Recently he had been angry after coming home from work and Rose suspected that he was on the verge of getting fired.

"I hope dinner is ready, I've had a long day and can't deal with anything else today," Richard barked, his eyes resting on Rose sitting on the floor playing with Pamela.

Before Rose had a chance to say anything rude back to the man, Lisa walked into the room with a forced smile on her face. "I am just putting it on the table," Lisa announced, quickly pulling Pamela up to wash her hands before dinner.

While they waited for the other half of the dinner party, Richard rounded on Rose with an odd look on his face. "I heard from someone at work that you have been talking a lot with the young man working by you," Richard began. "Chuck I think is his name."

"Charles," Rose automatically corrected. "And yep, he's a good mate. I was actually talking to him about moving in with his sister. We all knew me staying here wasn't long term."

Richard didn't say anything, but just fixed her with an odd look before turning and storming into the kitchen to eat. Before Rose could think about what could be his problem, Lisa and Pamela were ready and dinner started smoothly.

Halfway through dinner, the knot in Rose's stomach started to grow bigger. "Rose, I don't understand why you haven't been down somewhere to report your husband as missing yet," Richard began, fixing Rose with a glare as she took a sip of milk.

She almost choked on her drink, surprised by his blunt question. Even Lisa looked aghast, her eyes flitting between her husband and Rose. "Pamela had a field trip on school today, maybe she could tell us about it?" Lisa offered, trying to change the topic discreetly.

"I know John's okay," Rose stated with finality, deciding to just bite the bullet and confront Richard.

"Because if there was never really a husband," Richard explained, looking at Rose with a pointed look with judgement. "I won't have a woman of ill repute staying upstairs and setting an example for my daughter."

Eyes widening in surprise, Rose was once again reminded of how conservative the times were. "Excuse me," Rose interrupted, standing up suddenly from her chair. "I'm not feeling well," she lied, turning around and heading up the stairs without waiting to see what the response was.

When she was finally in her room, Rose took a deep breath and tried to brush off Richard. Rose laid down on her bed, letting out a long sigh as she stared at the ceiling. She glanced sideways, relieved that it was finally dark. After her whirlwind of emotions day, maybe she could use the dark as an excuse to go to bed early. She didn't have anything to do anyway…

However, before she had fully decided if it was socially acceptable to go to bed so early yet again, her heart almost stopped in her sleep. She had felt something. Something that was both entirely foreign and comforting to her.

"Doctor?" Rose asked out loud, feeling incredibly foolish a moment later when she was met with a loud silence. She was being daft and letting her imagination run wild, there was no way the Doctor could have said her name. But she swore it felt like he was in the room with her, could feel her body reacting as it always did when he was nearby.

She sat up on the bed, closing her eyes and trying to concentrate. She wasn't stupid, she knew the Doctor was telepathic. A few rare moments he had allowed that connection between them, so she was fairly sure that was what she had experienced. It was fleeting and barely noticeable, but she could still feel him. She wasn't sure if it was distance or the fact that she was only human as to how far away the Doctor's consciousness seemed right now.

With her eyes scrunched up tight, Rose focused her mind on trying to respond to the Doctor telepathically. A few weeks before she had been stuck here the Doctor had offhandedly mentioned giving her lessons on how to telepathically guard her mind, but they had never gotten around to it. Still, she had a natural intuition that she should open up her mind, to think of the Doctor. She let her emotions bubble up, her affection for the Time Lord fill her. Perhaps she should feel embarrassed for letting him feel this if he was indeed in her mind, but she didn't know what else to do. If he was truly there, that is. Rose stayed still for several moments, waiting for some sort of response.

When the response finally did come, Rose could hardly stop herself from gasping aloud. It felt closer this time, the Doctor being in her mind. In this moment, she couldn't imagine anything more beautiful than this, well besides being in the Doctor's arms.

Rose wasn't entirely sure since she had never really experienced before, but she felt as if the Doctor was hugging her. If she closed her eyes, she could feel him next to her. And there was just one more sentence before he quickly retracted himself from her mind.

Just this: Don't wander off.

Finally! The next chapter is a doozy! Enjoy it and let me know what you guess is coming next! I know these last 2 chapters were short, but they are worth it. I promise.