Chapter Four-
Rose ran into the TARDIS and straight into the Doctor's awaiting arms. She laughed loudly and hugged him close. She was finally home! "Right then, Rose Tyler, you tell me, where do you wanna go?" The Doctor asked as Rose began to spin them causing them to laugh. "Backwards or forwards in time? It's your choice. What's it gonna be?"
"First, why don't you set the TARDIS to drift between time and space-"
"The rift." The Doctor corrected her, not even sounding surprised.
"Ya, the rift, so that we can get to know each other, that way we can trust each other a little more." Rose said.
"But that's so... domestic." The Doctor whined.
"Oh hush, you. I'm not talking about sitting down in front of a fire with cups of tea to chat our lives away. We'll just say ten words or phrases that describe us. This way we learn about each other without giving too much away-" Rose stared.
"-Making it a mini mystery to solve!" The Doctor cried out joyously.
"Exactly! So how 'bout it?" Rose asked. Her answer was the Doctor letting her go so that he could set the TARDIS to drift in the rift.
"Right, you first." The Doctor said once they were adrift, leaning back against the console watching her.
"Okay." Rose said and began to walk around the room, thinking of what she could say without him catching on to what was happening. She smiled when the TARDIS began to sing her some words and phrases. "Puzzle, loved and left, stars, pink and yellow, loop-de-loop mixed with timey-wimey stuff, shop-girl, no dad, human, Rose Tyler: Defender Of The Earth, and Bad Wolf."
"Some of those phrases seem to be a bit too advanced for an ape." The Doctor said slightly suspicious but Rose laughed and waved it off.
"Maybe, but you said it yourself, I'm odd." Rose told him playfully causing the Doctor to smile at her.
"That you are, Rose Tyler." He agreed.
"Your turn." Rose said walking over to him before hopping to a stop in front of him.
"TARDIS, time traveler, alone, leather jacket, Last Time Lord, Gallifrey, regeneration, telepathic, timelines, paradoxes." The Doctor told her and Rose hummed in thought.
"Do you have a library I could use to look some of those words up." She asked playfully causing the Doctor to laugh. "Right, let's see if I can guess what any of that meant."
"Go ahead." The Doctor said, his tone telling her that he didn't believe she could guess half of it right.
"I'm guessing that you are a Time Lord from 'Gallifrey', we've already established that you're an alien which means we need a species and a planet to go with it. Gallifrey sounds like the perfect name for a planet that would hold the Time Lord species on it. You said you were the 'Last Time Lord' and spoke of a war while conversing with the Nestene Consciousness, so putting those two facts together leads me to believe that there was a war that destroyed the rest of your people leaving you the sole survivor, which would explain the 'alone'." Rose paused to think up of a good way to explain the rest of his words and phrases.
"I'm going to say that the Time Lord species are 'telepathic' and watch over 'timelines' to prevent 'paradoxes', hence the name Time Lords. 'Regenerations' has something to do with you becoming new because regenerate means 're-grow' or 'bring into renewed existence'. When we first met, you didn't seem to recognize your own face in the mirror, which leads me to believe that 'regenerations' for you mean that you change your face and personalities, or close to it.
"'Time traveler' is easy. You've already confirmed more than once that the TARDIS can travel through time. So you use your 'TARDIS' to travel through time becoming a 'Time traveler'. And last but not least: 'leather jacket'. That one is also easy, you said it because you wear this leather jacket all the time-" Rose was cut off when the Doctor pulled her into a kiss. "I wasn't rambling." She whispered against his lips.
"Neither was I the last time." The Doctor told her before giving her one last kiss. "Right, my turn to guess your words and phrases."
"It's only fair." Rose told him with a smile.
"I'm going to do them in the order you said, just telling you ahead of time." He told her with a smirk causing Rose to laugh. "You're a 'puzzle' to be put together 'cause one second you seem to have no idea what is going on and the next you do. You drop hints at every turn and yet at the same time say nothing about you. 'Loved and left' probably means that you fell in love and that person left you, and the way you said it told me that it wasn't mutual for either party. 'Stars', I'm guessing, has been something you wanted to see when you got older. A dream for the child in you.
"'Pink and yellow' seems to be easy enough, from the clothes you're wearing today and the ones you were wearing yesterday, and then there was all the pink in your room, I'd say that pink is your favorite color. Your hair is blonde. So, favorite color is pink and blonde hair, you're a pink and yellow girl. And the way you said it with a soft smile, it's probably a nick name.
"'Loop-de-loop mixed with timey-wimey stuff' was confusing until I looked into your timeline. Your timeline loops around before settling, but there was no way you could know that. Which leaves me to believe it means something else entirely." Rose tried not to smirk at that, really she did, so she hugged the Doctor and hid her face in his chest.
"'Shop-girl' is self-explanatory 'cause you were a girl that worked in a shop. 'No dad' means that your father died when you were young. 'Human' 'cause you're a tiny human being from Earth. 'Rose Tyler: Defender of Earth' is most-likely an inside joke with a close friend, probably from a time you were young and played a game where you had to defend the Earth from some evil aliens, which coupled with your dream of flying through the stars is most likely where the game came from.
"Last but not least is 'Bad Wolf' which has me stumped. I would say it was another nickname, but the slight tremor in your voice when you said it leads me to believe that whatever led you to having that name wasn't good. It frightened you, frightens you still. And yet you claim the name, which means that the name itself isn't what frightens you, but what led you to getting it." The Doctor theorized. Rose hummed trying to force back the memories of the Game Station and the knowledge that she would have to go through it once more.
"I lost someone dear to me that day." Rose muttered, she felt the Doctor tighten his grip on her.
"I'm sorry." He whispered to her. Rose shoved the painful memories away, no need to dwell on the past, or well the future now. Rose smiled at him as she stepped away.
"Don't be. I still have my fantastic memories of my time with him. And it's not as if he has truly left me, all I have to do is call up my memories of him and he's once again with me." Rose told the Doctor receiving an awed look from him.
"Not many people see it that way." The Doctor whispered to her, and she knew he was part of the people who saw it differently than her.
"I used to not see it this way, at least not until years later." Rose told him. "Any way, I think that's enough for the domestics. Earlier, you asked me where I wanted to go."
"Right, so where do you wanna go? Past or Future?" The Doctor asked catching onto the fact that she didn't wish to speak on that subject anymore.
"Forwards." Rose said with a smirk watching as the Doctor began to power the TARDIS up.
"How far?" He asked matching her smirk.
"Is a hundred years too far?" Rose asked teasingly. The Doctor playfully glared at her before setting the TARDIS down a hundred years from her time.
"There you go! Step outside those doors, it's the 22nd century." The Doctor told her with a smirk. "But that's too boring for you Rose, don't you think. I'm sure you'd want to go further."
"Only if you can handle it." Rose said playfully as the Doctor began to pump in some coordinates
"Oh, Rose, you'll soon learn I can handle more than you think." He told her with a wink.
"Whatever you say, Doctor." Rose flirted back.
"Ten thousand years in the future." The Doctor told her when they landed, his eyes never leaving hers. "Step outside, it's the year 12005. The new Roman Empire." Rose knew she needed to get him to take her to the End of the Earth.
"You think you're so impressive." Rose teased with a smirk, knowing exactly which buttons to press.
"I am so impressive!" The Doctor cried out not expecting that reaction from her.
"Then show me something impressive." Rose challenged playfully.
"Right then. You asked for it. I know exactly where to go." The Doctor growled out before inputting the coordinates for the End of the Earth and Rose smirked. "Hold on!" The Doctor ordered as they flew through the rift, the TARDIS rumbling and shaking.
"Did you pass your test to drive her?" Rose asked playfully as she gripped the console to keep from falling over.
"Nope! Just took her and Ran." The Doctor told her.
"So do you just grab all your girls and run?" Rose asked.
"Just the special ones." He told her with a smirk and a wink causing her to laugh as they landed.
"Where are we?" Rose asked even though she knew, she knew that he loved this part and didn't want to deny him this. The Doctor just smirked at her and motioned for her to go and see. Rose smiled at him before taking off towards the door.
The second she stepped out into the viewing room, her smile slid off her face as the darker parts of this trip from the first time flew through her mind. The deaths, the fighting with the Doctor, nearly getting burned up, Cassandra. Rose was snapped back to reality when the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and over to the control panel by the door while pulling out his screwdriver.
Rose soaked up the beauty of the planet in front of her as the metal panel that had been covering the window lowered. In a few minutes the sun would expand and the Earth would be destroyed. The Doctor made his way over to her and took her hand.
"You lot... you spend all your time thinking about dying. How you're gonna get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible. That maybe you survive." The Doctor told her softly as she leaned her head against his shoulder. "This is the year 5.5 slash Apple slash 26. Five billion years in your future. And this is the day... Hold on." He glanced at his watch and two seconds later the sun expanded. Rose could now admit that the expanding sun was beautiful.
"This is the day the sun expands." Rose finished softly in awe.
"Welcome to the end of the world." He whispered to her. The two of them stood in front of the window watching the Earth, well she was watching the Earth while he was watching her. She could feel his stare, and it actually made her happy. Him staring at her as softly as he was made this feel more as a date than the last time.