Back again! Hope you enjoy the happy reunion! Now what?

Words Unsaid

Rose was on her feet in moments, unsure of what she was supposed to do. As quickly as the Doctor's strangely familiar presence had entered in her mind, it was gone. It left an aching hole that Rose couldn't quite comprehend.

All she knew was that the Doctor was there, somewhere nearby, and that he was coming for her. It was more than she had ever dreamed of, something she had almost given up on. A relieved giggle escaped her lips, a wide smile planting itself on her face. The Doctor was there, calling out for her. He didn't abandon her and he was coming to get her.

Without a second thought, Rose ran out of her room and out the door, wishing she knew how long it would be or where the Doctor was coming from. She heard some confusion inside the house, but ignored it with all her thoughts focused on the Doctor. She simply paced back and forth just outside the front door, wondering how long she should be waiting. Who knows how far away he was when he contacted her, how long it would be until he could reach her. She had no idea how he knew her location, but she had faith in him. He wouldn't tell her to not wander off if he didn't know her location, right?

Apparently, he was further away than she hoped because the sky quickly turned dark, but she stubbornly remained outside sitting on the front steps. Lisa had come out to talk or offer her a jacket, but Rose had shrugged her off, telling her that John was coming to get her. She endured a few snippy comments from Richard about her being messed up in the head, but resolutely remained outside, for once not wandering off.

Rose had her back turned, staring aimlessly up at the stars. She remembered traveling among them, but it felt so very long ago now. Lost in her thoughts, Rose almost jumped out of her skin when she heard someone clear their throat a few feet behind her.

He was just standing there staring at her, his eyes wide and focused on hers. She immediately launched herself at him, trying to remember to breathe. All of the times she had doubted him over the last three months flew out of her mind when his arms wrapped around her to steady her. With her arms wrapped around the Doctor's neck, she bit back relieved tears as she buried her face against his neck. She breathed in deeply, taking in the scent that was uniquely the Doctor's.

It took several moments until the Time Lord's arms wrapped tighter around her, momentarily lifting her up off the ground. The hug lasted far shorter than she wanted it too as the Doctor let go of her and took a slow step backwards.

Rose cautiously glanced up, wanting to look at his face to see how carefully she should tread. However, the wide smile he had plastered on his face was infectious and she happily returned it, letting a relieved giggle escape her lips. This, she decided, made all the waiting worth it. The Doctor was here in front of her.

"Hello," the Doctor breathed out, a cheeky little wave accompanying his word.

"I…" Rose began, not entirely sure what to say. She began again, wishing her voice wasn't thick with unshed tears of relief. "You're here."

"Of course I am," the Doctor offhandedly retorted, looking her up and down as if he hadn't noticed what she looked like before. Although it was dark and she couldn't entirely make out every detail of him, Rose knew the Time Lord had better night vision than her. She imagined he was surprised seeing her dressed like such a native. "Couldn't let you change the past by mentioning a future event."

Nodding, Rose thought of what to say next. She was rarely unsure of what to say around the Doctor, that was part of the reason she loved being with him. But, she supposed, they had been separated for three months and she knew he was bound to feel guilty about that. And, of course, there was the awkwardness they had never had time to deal with before they investigated that old house. She should have sat him down after breakfast, forced him to talk to her. But instead she had latched onto Jackie's lead, wanting to postpone the inevitable rejection.

Just as the Doctor was opening his mouth, the door swung open and Richard stood there, squinting at the couple. "Is he bothering you, Rose?" Richard asked, his nasally voice confident as he took in the Doctor's slim form.

Shaking her head, the Doctor took a step towards her, threading their fingers together. Rose almost succumbed to tears right then and there, their hands clasped together felt just as perfect as she remembered. She noticed Richard's eyes shifting down to look at their joined hands and his eyes tighten slightly. Once again, Rose let out an inward sigh of relief that the Doctor was here and she wouldn't have to live here anymore.

"This is John," Rose announced when the Doctor squeezed her hand. Usually he would be the one rambling out an explanation, but at the moment she supposed she knew more about the fake story than him. "He finally found me," she finished.

"Oh," Richard began as Lisa came up behind him to stare wide-eyed at the Doctor. Rose suspected that they were beginning to assume that John, her 'husband', either never existed or had willingly abandoned her. "Well, that is a happy surprise," he said, his tone of voice anything but cheerful at being proved wrong.

Before the Doctor could open his mouth and dig himself into a hole, Lisa pushed herself forwards into the doorway, beckoning them to come inside. "Come inside please."

Surprisingly, the Doctor happily obliged, pushing past Richard and dragging her behind him back into the house. As she stepped inside Rose smirked, noticing Pamela, who was supposed to be in bed, peeking around the corner to see what the commotion was all about.

"Would you like some tea?" Lisa asked, brushing past her husband who was slightly glaring at the Doctor.

"I'm sorry, but Rose and I have a lot of catching up to do and it is quite late," the Doctor began. Rose rolled her eyes, sure that the Doctor had no idea the abrupt rudeness he exuded. "Would it be alright if we just pack up Rose's things tonight?" he asked, a friendly grin filling his face.

After a minute the Doctor turned to glance at Rose, motioning that he wanted to pack up. Her mind still slow from the shock of finally being back with the Doctor, Rose led him upstairs to her room, ignoring the surprise from everyone in the house.

"This is where you were staying?" the Doctor asked when he stepped inside, taking in the messy room.

"Yeah, they were the family that found me initially," Rose paused, wondering how much she should share, "They helped me out because I was pretty disoriented at first. Then Richard helped me find a job and offered me their spare room, I don't know where I would have been if they wouldn't have helped."

Rose blabbered on about her cover story to ensure the Doctor was in agreement with everything, blushing a bit when she mentioned they were married. Throughout it all, the Doctor was packing quickly, shoving everything of Rose's into bags he had in his coat pockets. It took only 15 minutes to erase her presence here, a thought which humbled her.

Laying her hand on his arm as she did a final turnabout the room to ensure all her stuff was packed away, she murmured, "So I think it would be nice for us to stay for tea as a final goodbye for all their hospitality."

"That would be the polite thing to do," the Doctor continued, pulling away from her slightly. "But I figure we can join them another night if we have to and frankly we have work to do here that I don't want to wait on."

Rose nodded, figuring agreeing was better than discussing it further when his mind was made up. So, as the Doctor wanted, they had polite goodbyes with the family and, as Rose was hugging Pamela, she noticed the Doctor hand Richard a stack of money as they shook hands. She decided not to mention it.

Once outside though and next to the Doctor, Rose was delighted, finally allowing herself to be reunited. "Where's the TARDIS?" Rose asked excitedly, her bag feeling light and empty at the possibilities currently ahead of her. However, when the Doctor didn't immediately respond or pull her off in another direction, she spoke up again, stopping to turn and look at him. "Doctor, which way to the TARDIS?" she asked slowly.

"She's not here, Rose," the Doctor explained, his voice low as the truth sunk into her. Was there a misunderstanding, but no? He did say they had work to do and it seemed as if that work was getting the TARDIS back.

Rose froze, not sure what to say. If the TARDIS wasn't here, how did he get here? How long had he been here? And, most importantly, how was she going to get home now? However, judging the Doctor's tensed jaw, he didn't really want to talk about the logistics. "Oh…" she murmured, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "Where are we going then?"

Looking pale under the streetlight, the Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "I didn't think this far ahead, I guess…" he admitted slowly. "We have money," he added quickly, glancing around at what was surrounding them.

"There's a hotel not that far away," Rose wondered aloud, her bag suddenly feeling heavy. This wasn't what she had in mind, not at all. "I don't have that much money saved up though…" she added, now worried about how they were going to live and wishing the Doctor hadn't given away the bills to Richard now. The Doctor surely had a plan to get the TARDIS back, but who knows how long they would have to stay in 1969. She had enough money for herself from her job, but she wasn't sure she would have enough for the Doctor as well. Maybe she did, but they'd have to be quite frugal. Though, considering the bundle of bills he had, maybe he had an account here or something or used his sonic to mess with a computer at the bank to get money. A far away situation from their first date when he didn't have money for chips.

The Doctor simply nodded in response, leaning over and effortlessly taking her bag from her. "Lead the way," he muttered, motioning for her to show him where the hotel was. For once she knew more than the Doctor.

It was awkward for a few moments, Rose not knowing what to say in regards to the Doctor losing his TARDIS. When they had been in the parallel world and he thought his time machine had died, he had been understandably distraught. He had seemed upset telling her the TARDIS wasn't here, but there was something like hope in his voice.

Thankfully, it wasn't long until the Doctor was once again rambling away as he walked next to her. He was telling her facts about 1969 and the high points and low points of the year. Though, Rose had lived through a few of the events herself in her three months stuck here.

…

Rose felt awkward when they entered the room. Like all hotel rooms the room was barely big enough to fit anything but the bed. Since the Doctor was the one lugging her bag, she sat down hesitantly on the edge of the bed.

"So did the angels send you here today?" Rose asked, making sure that the Doctor hadn't been here multiple days without finding her. "You came straight from that house?"

"Yep, this afternoon" the Doctor answered quickly, depositing her bag in the corner of the room with little car. When he noticed the look on her face, he crouched down in front of her, his hands on either side of her as he leaned in closer to her. "How long, Rose?" he asked again, his voice low. "How long were you stuck here?"

There were several moments of tense silence before Rose finally spoke up. "It was only three months," she answered, trying to downplay it like it was no big deal. But it had been a big deal to her. As the weeks passed by her hope that the Doctor was going to find her diminished. She closed her eyes, knowing that he could tell she was lying if he could look at her eyes. "Really, time just flew by, I knew you'd be able to find me."

All she could hear was the Doctor's breathing until suddenly he pulled her against his chest, murmuring about how sorry he was for the delay. Opening her eyes, she latched her lips onto his on instinct at the joy of being reunited. The Doctor took a long moment to kiss her back, but when he did she was inwardly delighted, filled with the joy of finally being touched again. It was what had gotten her through, the thought of being with the Doctor again. The joy of reuniting, the feeling of his arms around her, the steady beating of her hearts, she was home again even if the TARDIS wasn't here. However, when her hands reached up to curl into his messy hair as the kiss deepened into still unfamiliar territory, the Doctor backed away from her, standing a foot away from the bed and glaring at the door.

"I know we never talked about what happened, but I don't regret it," Rose began, forcing herself to stay confident as she looked at the Time Lord's emotionless mask. She had three months to reflect since that night, but she supposed the Doctor had less than 12 hours, but she didn't want to wait for him to catch up. "And I know you don't either because you were still there when I woke up," she paused, hoping she wasn't digging her own grave so soon after their reunion. But she had been separated from him, thought she would never have the chance to speak to him again, so fear wasn't going to hold her back. "I always thought you would act like it didn't happen the next day, but you didn't take your hands off of me in the morning. You kissed me when my Mum went to make us tea. You were so nice to me."

"Don't," the Doctor whispered so quietly she almost didn't hear him. "You don't know the situation."

She just ignored him and continued, needing to get this off her chest since his demeaner turned cold. So it was going to go an opposite direction than she had hoped, she could deal with that as well. "Was I just an easy shag, then?" she asked, her question met with silence. The chill in the air seemed to deepen as all joy from their reunion evaporated "You get to call the shots on when I get to touch you? I have no say, just gotta stay with you in the TARDIS so if you ever get bored you'll have something fun to entertain you at night?"

The Doctor didn't respond and that hurt more than anything else. He had his hands in his pockets, was kicking at a loose piece of carpet like he wasn't paying attention to her. Besides the tension radiating off him her words weren't impacting his demeaner at all.

"Let's just…" Rose began, putting a hand over her eyes. She felt so stupid and embarrassed, like a kid. She had lost her temper for a moment, but didn't want to say anything else she would forget. Now here, in 1969, he was all she had, she couldn't afford to fight with him, she cared about him too much for that. "Forget it," she finally finished, hating herself for saying that. But she knew she had to be sensible about this. If she pushed him too much, the Doctor would find a way to run away even without the help of his time machine.

She stayed still for several moments, hearing the Doctor moving around the room, presumably pacing. It felt both lonely and entirely too crowded in this stupid hotel room. It was late, later than she usually went to bed, and she hadn't been sleeping well recently, tossing and turning while considering if she should give up on the Doctor finding her. And all she wanted tonight was to have a good night's sleep, preferably next to the aforementioned Time Lord.

"Doctor," she began, squinting between her fingers to see him turn to look at her. "Can you just…" she paused, knowing she was pushing his boundaries. But, then again, she hadn't seen him in three months and it wasn't a rare occasion for them to share a bed. "Can you just sleep tonight and not work on a scheme out of here? I am just so tired," she asked feebly, wishing her voice sounded stronger.

Just like she had expected, she heard the door open and shut as the Doctor walked out of the room, leaving her alone on the bed. She peeked her eyes open just to make sure that he was gone. Though, she noticed with relief, his tan coat was still draped over the chair. He wouldn't leave that coat, Janis Joplin game him his coat and he loved it. So, reminding herself like a mantra that he'd be back for his prized possession, she got ready for bed, urging herself not to cry.

That, she decided, was not how she wanted their reunion to go.

Umm so a lot happened. Thoughts?

Gabrielle