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Chapter 28 - Gizmos

The Doctor woke up alone in bed again. Rose had left her cotton dressing gown in the bed laying across his chest. He quickly realized that she had climbed out of the bed nude, and he had slept through seeing that.

"Now, that's just mean." he grumbled under his breath.

He rolled over and looked on the nightstand to find the familiar handwriting letting him know that Rose had left with Shakes to go for a run.

He rubbed his face with both of his hands, and decided to go take a shower. After he had gotten dressed into some jeans, a light t-shirt and a brown oxford, he decided to shave his neck. He shaped up his growing beard. After he was done, he admired his work in the mirror. He had never had a beard before. Rubbing his hand over the hair on his face, he decided that he liked it. It looked a lot neater than it had since he had shaped it up. He put on some after shave.

He left the bathroom and went over to the suitcase. He was looking for a different pair of trainers to wear, when he saw a box. Curious, he pulled it out of the suitcase and opened it. It was the box of gizmos that Jake had brought to them that night they were at the Tyler's Mansion. He grabbed the file containing all of the specs for it. He remembered Rose telling him that there were only 22 of the short range teleport systems. He counted them and found that there were only 21.

"Oh, that's not good at all." he mumbled under his breath.

He went to the nightstand and picked up his phone. He rang Jake.

"Jakey-boy. I just found this box of those short range teleport devices you gave to Rose. There's one missing. Wasn't there supposed to be 22?"

Jake explained. "Yeah, originally there were 22. I have the missing one. I'm keeping it on me. Thomas doesn't know."

"Oh! That's alright. It just wanted to make sure it hadn't fell into the wrong hands. What is the range on those things, again?"

"If you have one, you can go up in the lower orbit of earth. Carrying two people is about 100 miles, three can go about 50 miles."

"Right. I might tinker with it and see if I can't get it better range on it. Seems pretty simple, stuff. How's Thomas? Still being a pain in the ass?"

"No, he's been pretty quiet recently." Jake assured him.

"Well, that's scary. It's always the quiet ones you need to watch out for." the Doctor laughed.

Pete laughed in agreement, "Have you talked to Pete, yet?"

"Not about our meeting. I have to call him in a minute anyway. I have some other business I need to discuss with him. I've decided I'm not going to confront him at the moment though. I'd like to see how much he will keep from me before he talks."

"You might be waiting a long time, Doc."

"Yeah, but it will be a good lesson for him in the long run. Something tells me we are going to have to learn to live with one another for a while."

"Rose better?" Jake asked him.

"Yeah, she's fine. She's running with Shakes. His damn man with Tony let him see a newspaper headlining Rose's death last night. I got a phone call at 4:00 from the boy."

"Oh god. He can read?"

"Yep. It's a recent thing. Shakes said he's handling it, but Poltoius is going to come out of the shadows and be visible from now on. It will make Tony feel better. Hell, it will make me feel better."

"Do you want me to give Tony some more security?" Jake offered.

"Nah, I think Poltoius and his men can handle it. How many does he have?"

"Counting him, there are three in all." Jake told him.

"I'll talk to Shakes and see what he thinks. But, I think he is fine. He has Zeus as well. Maybe I'm just being paranoid." the Doctor confessed.

Jake admitted. "There's good reason for that."

"Did you ever find Melissa? Rose hasn't mentioned it, and I've been checking her phone. She's not contacted her at all. It's like she fell off the face of the planet."

"No, we don't have any leads either. She's just gone." Jake told him.

"I'm afraid this is going to get worse before it gets better." the Doctor confessed to Jake.

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Rose walked into the penthouse. She was dressed in her running clothes. Her hair was all tied up on top of her head. She was covered in sweat.

"Hey! Good run?" the Doctor asked her.

"Yeah. What are you over here doing?" she smiled at him.

He was sitting on the couch wearing his glasses. The specs for the gizmo spread out all over the coffee table. He had one tore apart, and was looking at it. His sonic screwdriver was in his hand, but he was currently using it to scratch his head.

Rose came over and sat next to him.

"You tore apart a gizmo?" she asked him. "What are you doing with it?"

"Just looking at it. It's weird. These things aren't supposed to work together. I'm surprised this thing even -." He pressed something on the side of it and he disappeared in a small puff of light and smoke.

Rose was shocked. He was just gone! She jumped up. She had used the gizmo a lot, but she hadn't been prepared for him to disappear.

In about 10 seconds, he reappeared standing next to the couch. His hair was standing up all over his head. It looked charged. His shirt was untucked and he looked like startled. His eyes were as big as saucers. He was all out of breath.

"Damn, temperamental little Dalek shit!" he yelled as he threw it on the coffee table.

Rose couldn't help it. She started laughing.

"Are you alright?"

He collapsed on the couch and rubbed his face with both of his hands.

"Falling through the stratosphere a few hundred meters does tend to focus the mind!" he told her.

She sat down next to him and rubbed his thigh as she continued to laugh at him.

"I wish you could have seen your face."

He started to laugh. "My heart's working now. Better than any coffee I've ever had. That damn thing!"

He grabbed her hand and sighed. She could feel his nervousness and calming panic. It wasn't long until he was laughing with her about the entire event.

"Will you please be careful? Or get a parachute if you are going to tinker with that thing?"

"I make no promises." he chuckled as he picked it back up and started looking it again.

"I'm going to order us some breakfast. What do you want?"

"Oh, I don't care. Just order me something." he told her. He was completely distracted looking at the gizmo again.

Rose went over to the phone and ordered them waffles, eggs, sausage and fruit. As soon as she turned around to tell the Doctor she was going to take a shower, he disappeared again.

She tossed her hands up in frustration. "Now, what?"

About 10 seconds later, he zapped back. He was standing on the other side of the room. He looked completely shocked. He threw the gizmo on the ground and ran his hands through his hair. "Damn piece of ..." Rose didn't understand the rest of what he said. Apparently the English language didn't contain the swear words necessary for the occasion.

She looked at him. "Are you hurt?"

"No." he spluttered. "I ended up in some woman's bathroom! She was in the shower. Some things you can't unsee, Rose! Reminds me of a planet I went to once." he told her.

"That will give me nightmares." he mumbled under his breath as he rubbed his beard.

No doubt about it, Rose was laughing at him again. She was nearly doubled over. "Leave that thing alone!" she told him through her laughing.

"Rose, I think I can make it better!" he reasoned.

She was still laughing at him, "Yeah, if you don't get smacked by some ugly, old lady in a shower first!"

He laughed at her. "Yeah, that would be bad."

She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Everything doesn't need to be tinkered with, you know."

"Yeah. That's true." he agreed as he embraced her. He placed his hand on the back of her neck, and looked into her eyes.

"You are beautiful." he told her.

"Me? I'm a mess. I'm all sweaty and -"

"Absolutely beautiful." he told her. "More than any creature I've ever seen."

"Boy, someone woke up on the right side of the bed this morning!" Rose teased him.

The Doctor sighed. "And someone had her cheeky pill!"

"Whatever, love. I'm going to take a shower. Stay away from that gizmo." she pointed at him as she walked into the bedroom.

"I can't promise that." he told her. He picked back up the gizmo and started to look at it again.

Within a few minutes, Rose heard another zap from the sitting room. She rolled her eyes. Ten seconds later, she knew he was back as she heard a thump on the floor as he yelled, "How the hell as this shit not killed someone yet?!"

She couldn't help to start laughing at her mad Time Lord again.

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