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Chapter 51 - Rocking Genie

Jacob, Tony and Genie all returned to the children's room with the Doctor and Rose. The children enjoyed a quick bedtime story from the Doctor which included monsters and adventures.

After the story, the room was mostly dark. Tony and Jacob were snuggled in their beds, already asleep. Rose sat in a rocking chair with Genie. They were both wrapped up in a blanket, and Genie was nearly asleep.

The Doctor leaned over and kissed Rose, and then Genie's forehead. He crouched beside her and lay his hand on Rose's arm he could touch her and talk in her head. He didn't want to disturb Genie.

'I imagined bedtime would have been the worst. Jackie has been great to keep her distracted all day, but when you have time to yourself, your thoughts can really beat you up.' he told Rose as he pet the little girls' hair.

'Is that why you have such trouble sleeping lately?' Rose asked him.

He looked at her in surprise. 'Well. Truthfully. I've always had problems sleeping. It's always been that way. In all of my lives. The best sleep I've ever gotten has been since I've been here with you.'

'You always told me that a Time Lord doesn't need as much sleep as a human. I remember you told me that all of the time when we were on the TARDIS together.'

He smiled. 'Well, they don't. But, they need more than I usually had. I rarely sleep without having bad dreams. Things that I've tried to forget. I just decided a long time ago to try to sleep as little as I can. Besides, I know you sleep enough for both of us. I'll be fine.'

She smiled at him, 'I don't think it works that way.'

'Oh, it don't?' he chuckled.

'No.' she laughed. 'I agree, though. When I sleep, I sometimes remember things I saw. Or lived through when I was looking for you. It seems like the more you try to bury it, the more it will torment you in your dreams. Force you to live it over and over again.'

The Doctor looked at her. 'Sweetheart, you're always telling me that I can talk to you about anything. You know you can talk to me about that, don't you? I feel like you worry so much about me, and how I'm doing that I rarely can even know what's going on with you.'

She smiled at him. 'Oh, I know. That's my deflecting technique. That's how you always treated me when we were back on the TARDIS. So busy taking care of me that I couldn't take care of you. One day, I might tell you. But, I'd rather not think about it for a while.'

He smiled at her and shook his head. 'Oh, you are a clever one, aren't you?'

She giggled, 'Apparently so. I am a nominee for the Nobel Prize!' she bit her lip and grinned.

He laughed quietly, 'I'm fairly sober now, Rose. Tell me what is going on with that? I'm so lost. How does everyone know you were working on that? Wasn't it a secret? Classified?'

'Oh yes, it still is. The entire thing is simple really. Malcolm wrote a paper about some unit of measurement he had developed. He named it after himself if you can imagine that.'

The Doctor smiled, 'Well, it didn't do James Watt any harm. So, Malcolm published a paper about that...'

Rose corrected him. 'No, Malcolm wrote a paper about that. He was helping me with the Trans Dimensional project, and told me I should write a paper about the theory. Of course, us actually working on it was classified. Tosh agreed, but both of them decided that I should write it completely. They pushed me to do it when I was recovering from that...car accident.'

The Doctor didn't have to be an empath anymore to know that was hard to think about for her. He raised up and kissed her forehead.

She smiled, 'I'm okay. But, it was something I could do where I could continue working to get back to you. I had done all of this research and taught myself so much, that I found that it came pretty easy when I just sat down to write it all out.'

He smiled at her. 'Einstein says the same thing. 'If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.'

Rose rocked Genie and nodded her head. 'Exactly. It was just like that. Hang on, you knew Einstein?'

He rubbed his beard and looked at her. 'I prefer to say that I know him. Yeah, I saw him shortly before I came here. He taught me to sail. I can't wait to get our house finished so I can take you and Genie out sailing. Did you know I knew how to do that?'

'I didn't know Einstein sailed. I just know he had wild hair.'

The Doctor laughed quietly. 'Oh, he is one of a kind. Loves to sail, but never learned to swim. Just didn't care to know. He also never wears socks. Smokes like a chimney. Plays the violin beautifully. We sit for hours and just discuss physics, theories, and ummm...women...'

'Women?'

He rubbed his head in embarrassment. 'Yeah, you came up several times. That's how he explained relativity to me. He said, 'When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But, let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.'

Rose smiled at him. 'You know, I think you make half of this stuff up.'

He shook his head and laughed under his breath quietly. " I swear every word is true! We have a lot in common. Einstein and me. We were both never able to forgive ourselves for things we done.' he gritted his teeth.

Rose looked serious. 'I didn't know that.'

'He told me that the release of atom power has changed everything except mankind's way of thinking...'the solution to this problem lies in the heart'. He said that if he had known what it would have lead to, he would have become a watchmaker. He loved my TARDIS though. He tried to steal it from me. Twice!'

Rose looked very surprised. 'Wow! I had no idea.'

He smiled at the memory. 'Yeah, we are/were mates. He's a funny guy. I love his accent. He left his bicarbonated processing machine somewhere on the TARDIS. We never found that thing.'

'I helped him build a refrigerator that ran on alcohol gas. It was patented, with John Smith's name not on it, but it never went into production. Too bad he didn't know Pete Tyler, huh?'

'Why alcohol gas?' Rose asked.

'He knew some family that had been poisoned by a sulphur dioxide refrigerator. We worked on it together. It was like we were making something right that had went wrong. Tinker therapy, I suppose.'

She smiled. 'You are full of surprises.'

'If we ever get that TARDIS grown, I'll take you to meet him. He's here in this dimension. And I can do it all over again now. You two can discuss your theories!'

Rose shook her head, 'Oh no. I don't need to go discuss anything with anyone. I'm not smart enough for that.'

He couldn't believe she had said that. 'Rose Tyler, you are absolutely brilliant. They don't hand out Nobel Prize nominations to slobs. Einstein won that same award! And oddly enough, he acted the same way as you did about it. Complete shock.'

'Really?' Rose asked.

'Oh yes. He told me that he would never understand how he had became so famous because the books he wrote were so unpopular.' he laughed.

'Yeah, but he had talent. He was so smart.' Rose told him.

The Doctor shook his head. 'No. See, he would disagree with you there. He always says that he doesn't have any special talent at all. He is only passionately curious. Just like you were. So determined to figure out how to jump between the dimensions to find me.'

Rose shook her head in disbelief.

'But anyway. So you published this paper? When can I read it?'

Rose shook her head. 'No way. I don't want you to read that. Oh my god! No!'

He laughed at her. 'Well, why not?'

'You know why not! Because it's you.'

He looked confused, 'I don't follow.'

'The Doctor, reading a paper on physics. You will discover what an idiot I really am and tell me how wrong all of my theories are.'

'Sweetheart, I wouldn't do that. It's oblivious that you know what you are doing. You built a Trans-Dimensional Canon and jumped in between dimensions. That's no small feat. Time Lords stopped jumping between dimensions centuries ago. I really would like to read it. I'm passionately curious."

Rose had her head on the back of the rocking chair looking at the ceiling.

'Why didn't you tell me you had published a paper like that?' he asked her.

'It's not like I kept it from you purposely. I had honestly forgot about it with everything that's happened since you have been here. I didn't even think about it until those two deans came up to me tonight at the State Dinner.'

'Really?' he asked in disbelief.

'Yep. I sent it in to be published and then went on with my work. I started with my jumps right after that. I never even saw it printed. Malcolm brought me a copy, but I tossed it in my desk drawer at work. I never even looked at it. I was too busy.'

He smiled like a loon. 'Too busy to come find me to even read a paper you had written in a science journal! Wow! You are amazing, Rose. Truly! I'm so thankful you found me. I can't imagine my life without you.'

He pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed it. 'And I want to read this paper.' he pointed at her as he stood up and stretched his back.

He whispered, "Want me to put her in the bed?" Genie was completely asleep now in Rose's arms.

Rose looked down at her. "Nah, I think I'll rock her a bit more."

He smiled at her. "Relaxing isn't it?"

Rose smiled and looked up at him. "It really is. We need to get a rocking chair for our flat in London. That's where we're going tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, I figure I'll call Michelle in a few hours and see if she can get some stuff for us so we don't have to run directly out. Like some shopping, some clothes and toys for Genie, you know. Just let her shop. She seems the type that would like that, and then we won't have to deal with it in the middle of everything we're going to have to deal with this week."

"Like what?" Rose asked him.

Genie stretched. Them talking had disturbed her.

Rose rubbed her back, "shhh..." and held her tighter.

The Doctor beamed at her as he lay his hand on her arm. 'You're a natural at this, darling. We'll talk about it later. I need to catch Jake. I'm just up the hall if you need me. Come rescue me when you put her to bed. I really don't need to drink a lot more tonight at all.'

He leaned down to kiss Rose. She was rocking Genie again so he caught her lips as she rocked up at him quickly. It made them both laugh. Rose caught his hand, 'Do you have any professional moves involving a rocking chair?'

He blushed and laughed at her. 'My darling, I am a professional. I have moves you couldn't imagine. I plan to introduce them all to you, slowly. The best is yet to come.'

He started to walk away and Rose grabbed his hand tighter. 'Are you forgetting something?'

He looked confused, "What?"

'I told you about the paper. Where are my knickers?'

He quietly laughed at her. 'That wasn't the deal. I want to read the paper, then you can have your knickers back.'

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