Journey Amongst the Stars

By Lumendea

Chapter Seven: Human Nature: Back to School

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the spinoff material and I gain no income off of this story, just the satisfaction of playing with the characters.

AN: I decided to do something different with Human Nature. There are a lot of rewrites that put Rose in the past at the school with the Doctor, but I personally think the TARDIS chose that era to ensure that Martha would open the watch because she'd desperately want to leave.

…

Rose sped up her walking speed and followed the walkway between the massive gothic buildings around her. More people about her age were rushing about in a hurry with bags and cups of coffee. She took a sip of her tea from her travel mug and stepped around another group of students. A soft sigh escaped her, but Rose kept moving.

Boredom was hard. It wasn't usually a problem that Rose had. Life on the TARDIS was always intense and exciting and her student life before that had been fairly interesting as well. Pushing such thoughts aside, Rose entered the old gothic building that housed numerous faculty offices and took the now familiar path up to the third floor. There was a line of doors with small wavy glass windows. Most had fancy nameplates attached to them, but one had a much cheaper looking plate that was designed to swap out easily. This nameplate said: Professor John Smith.

Knocking on the door, Rose waited until she heard the call to come in and then pushed open the door. It was a small office with a desk and several bookshelves that were filled with books on many different subjects. A few knick knacks here and there lent some personal touches, but Rose knew that they weren't anything special. The man behind the desk gave Rose pause. He looked like the Doctor but wasn't. His blue eyes were intelligent but not as much as the Doctors and lacked the sorrow that the Doctor always carried. The familiar leather jacket was gone and in its place was an understated twede jacket over a shirt and tie matched with dark pants. He looked every inch the professor he was supposed to be.

"Ah, Rose, good morning."

"Morning, Professor Smith," Rose said.

"Did you bring me tea?"

"No," Rose answered. "This is mine. Get your own."

"You make much better tea."

"I'll tell my mum you think so."

Rose sat down in the chair in front of the desk. She took a long sip of her tea to taunt the professor who scowled at her even as his eyes sparkled with amusement. That helped a little. Her eyes took in the office, and she was very aware of the weight of the pocket watch hanging around her neck and hidden under her shirt. At this rate, it was a wonder that her neck wasn't being dragged down by all the weight of her various necklaces.

"How was your weekend, Rose?"

"Good. A couple of my friends came to visit me," Rose answered. "We had a mellow weekend, but it was nice to see them."

"How did they like our school?"

"They liked it fine," Rose said. "They'd never been to Oxford before."

Rose curled her nose a bit as she said it. Why had the TARDIS picked Oxford? Couldn't they be at Cambridge with the Chestersons…. Then again, Ian and Barbara would probably be too fascinated by the notion of a human Doctor. And with their weird aging, they might have been targets of the Family as well. She shivered a bit at the idea and hoped that Oxford was far enough away from them if the Family did show up. She could swallow what school pride she had for everyone's sake.

"How do you like it here?" the Professor asked. He seemed truly interested, and Rose smiled.

"The people are nice enough," she said.

"You're bored, aren't you?"

Rose blushed at the blunt observation and the way he smiled. Then she shrugged and nodded a little before taking another sip of her tea.

"A bit."

"It's not as exciting as the jungle," he agreed. "But fewer insects."

"That's true."

Rose's eyes moved over to the books on the shelf about the Mayan ruins in the jungles of Central America. Then Professor John Smith's features twisted into a very familiar thoughtful and worried expression. Rose started to worry about what could be wrong. They'd arrived to find a flat and a guest professor position waiting for him. He had a job, money, and memories of an ordinary human life so what did he have to be so nervous about.

"Rose, about what happened before we, uh…" He trailed off, and his read turned red. "Maybe we should talk about it. We were just friends then, but now you're a student at the university where I'm teaching."

Rose tensed despite herself. What did he think had happened? She frowned, thinking back to when they'd gotten started at the university. Professor Smith had introduced her as his assistant from a dig in Central America. There was a strange story of how they'd met while she was traveling and had decided to stick around, doing odd jobs around the camp and being very useful. Rose wasn't clear on all the details, but she had enough hints that to be able to take part in conversations.

"Talk about it?" Rose repeated.

Professor Smith's blush spread, and he glanced towards the door. "The night before we left the dig and we drank too much and…"

His tone left Rose with no confusion as to what he thought had happened. Panic followed by a need to laugh hysterically welled up in her chest, but somehow Rose kept calm. Her mind tried to come up with something to say, but she obviously had no memory of the event he was thinking of. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She had to swallow and try again.

"It happened," Rose said. She shrugged and almost choked. "I don't think now is the time." Something flickered in his eyes and Rose's heart might have jumped a beat. "Let's talk about it when I finish my masters, and I'm no longer an ethics violation," she said gently. "It won't be long, and then we can have that conversation, including about what happens after we're both done with our obligations here."

"Right." He swallowed and smiled a little at her, seemingly a bit relieved. "You're right. You usually are." Then he cleared his throat. "Well, I hope that classes keep going well."

Rose nodded. There was a knock on the door, and Professor Smith jumped a little in his chair, but quickly seemed to recover. Giving her an apologetic look, he called for the person to come in. A tall, older woman dressed in a neatly pressed pencil skirt and blouse strode in. She apologized but walked forward to hand Professor Smith a stack of documents.

"I wanted to get this to you before your class."

Professor Smith nodded and took the papers. He glanced at Rose, but she saw a good time for retreat when she saw it. Giving him a soft smile, Rose slipped out of the office only to realize a few moments later that Professor Tilling had followed her out.

"He's an odd man," Professor Tilling said. She was smiling a little with mild amusement. "Lovely, but odd."

"He is a bit," Rose agreed cautiously. She didn't love someone paying the Doctor's human self that much attention.

"You worked on the Central American dig with him, didn't you?"

"Not officially," Rose answered. "It was sort of an accident. I was traveling down there and came into camp when they were having trouble with the generators and a car." Rose shrugged and recited the story she'd heard Smith tell. "I'm good with things like that and fixed it all up. Decided to stick around. Ended up keeping him and the rest of the team mostly out of trouble."

"And now you're here?" There was something curious in the woman's tone.

"Well, he is a bit absent-minded professor," Rose said. She gestured at the door with a smile. "And it brought me back to England for a bit, so I don't mind."

"You're working on a masters in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics, are you not?"

"Yes." Rose was trying to stay polite. Then Tilling shook her head and chuckled. "Well, I hope you enjoy your time at Oxford."

"Thank you."

Then, to her relief, Professor Tilling headed down the hallway back to her office. Rose blinked and struggled to breathe. She'd known that the TARDIS gave the Doctor memories of a human life, but this had not been what she was expecting. Shaking her head, Rose decided to get to her first class and see if she could handle paying attention. She hadn't had much luck with that so far in this twisted adventure.

…..

Rose unlocked the door and pushed it open with a tired groan. Her flat was nice. Almost as nice as her place in Cambridge, but less lived in. This wasn't home, and in the past two weeks, Rose had done nothing to try and make it home. She set her bag down on the counter of the kitchen. Switching on the light, Rose scanned the room and noted with relief that everything was where she left it.

Paranoia. She was too young for paranoia, but under the circumstances, it felt justified. Turning around, she locked up the front door and headed to the back room of the flat. The bed that had come with the place was pushed up into one corner leaving plenty of space for the TARDIS that was parked in the middle of the room.

Rose pulled her TARDIS key out and quickly unlocked the familiar blue doors, running a hand over them lovingly. The TARDIS was dim with most of the lights turned off. It felt empty, almost ghostly to Rose as she walked up to the console. When she touched it, there was a low, soft hum beneath her hand.

"Hello, Beautiful," Rose greeted. "Funny thing happened today. Apparently, Professor John Smith has some rather interesting memories of me." Her embarrassment and frustration returned full force. "Honestly, what were you thinking, making him believe that we've slept together? I'm lucky that he's comfortable at all with me!"

The TARDIS hummed in a way that almost seemed like a grumble, and Rose rolled her eyes. "We're working on it," she scolded. "You need to leave it alone. Besides, if anything happened while he was a human, he'd freak out!"

Rose glared at the TARDIS as it stayed silent. She was right, and she knew it, but it seemed that the TARDIS was growing impatient. That was utterly ridiculous given that she was time ship. Still, Rose couldn't stay mad at the ship. Right now, she was too dark and sad for her stay angry for long.

"I suppose him being attracted to me is better than him becoming involved with a human. That would have been a mess." Rose admitted. The lights flashed weakly. "Oh, don't pretend that's the reason you did it!"

The TARDIS didn't respond, and Rose huffed. It's true that was hopefully one issue she didn't have to worry about. Emotions churned in Rose's chest that she didn't know how to navigate. She sighed and lowered her head, feeling exhaustion press down on her.

A soft, sympathetic hum echoed around her, and Rose nodded. "I know, you miss him too." Sighing, she leaned against the console. "I suppose that I should at least be grateful that we're in my home time. That makes things easier."

Unsure of what to do with herself, Rose went to the screen and brought up the short video that the Doctor had recorded. After the strange encounter in the office, Rose needed to see his face as his own and see him in his eyes. The video started to play, and the Doctor sat down in front of the camera. Exhaustion hung over his shoulders, and he sighed out loud.

"Okay, Rose," he said. "I know that there hasn't been time for a good explanation and for that I'm sorry. I'm about to use the machine to turn human. It's not going to be pretty."

Rose shivered at the memory of the screaming. She hadn't been allowed to touch him and had been useless to help him. Swallowing, she shook herself and kept watching the video, drinking in the sight of her Doctor when he was still whole.

"The TARDIS will find a safe place for us. I don't know what period she'll take us to, but it should be human since we'll both be human." The Doctor grimaced slightly, but his eyes were thoughtful. "She likes you, so I'm not too worried, but you need to be careful. I've got some rules. You've very capable, but humour me." He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. Rose hated seeing how scared he'd been. "One, don't let me abandon you. The TARDIS should give us some kind of history together, but don't let me do anything too stupid."

Rose almost snorted at the "history together" remark.

"Two, don't let me hurt anyone. You know what humans can be like. Don't let me be an arse. Three, don't worry about the Tardis. I'll put her on emergency power so they can't detect her. She'll be fine, but she won't be able to help you. Just setting us up in the era she chooses will drain her reach." Rose still had questions about that. "Four, don't get involved in big historical events. Keep your head down and stay safe. If things go south, worry about yourself more." Even the way he said it on the recording indicated that he didn't think she would. "Five, if the Family finds us, then open the watch. I'm trying to avoid this turning into a bloodbath, but if they press the issue…" He sighed and nodded. "I trust your judgement. I'm sorry about this. Thank you, for being willing to protect me."

Rose thought she heard more in the thank you than just those words. His eyes were soft at the end despite his worry and fear. It both helped and made everything worse. She was homesick for a person in a way that Rose didn't know a person could be. Unable to stay in the TARDIS alone anymore, Rose patted the console and headed for the door. Behind her, the TARDIS hummed softly in what might have been an apology for the trouble she'd caused, and Rose couldn't stay angry.

Returning to the living room, Rose set up her laptop on the desk and started working on a new assignment. It was more habit than anything else. She wasn't going to stay for the whole year to complete the masters, but she did need to keep her head down. They needed to blend in. Her video call software beeped, and Rose perked up when she noted the call was from Kate. She quickly answered, checking the older woman's face as it appeared. Thankfully, she didn't look worried.

"Hey, Kate."

"Hello, Rose."

"Any news?"

"No, just checking in," Kate said gently. "Nothing unusual has been detected."

"Right, okay." Rose shrugged. "That's good."

"You're bored to death, aren't you?" Kate teased. The scientific leader of UNIT UK smiled at her, almost glowing with amusement. "That's hilarious."

"Haha," Rose said. "Maybe a little. I've been on Earth for two weeks and just… nothing." She tossed her hands up and leaned closer to the screen. "It was never this quiet when I was really in school."

"Technically you are back in school."

"It's not the same thing," Rose countered. "Besides, I don't care about the Masters degree, so once the three months are up, I'm out of here."

"Your mother might care."

"Mum doesn't know that I'm on Earth," Rose said. She narrowed her eyes at Kate. "And she's not going to find out. I don't need her trying to convince me to stay."

"You haven't seen her?"

"I did the first weekend here. I let her think that the Doctor had dropped me for a visit," Rose admitted. "That's it. I want to be ready to move just in case."

Something like maternal disapproval crossed Kate's face, but she didn't lecture Rose. "Well, nothing has crossed our radar in the UK," Kate said. "And I'm keeping it quiet."

"Thank you. I don't want this in any files," Rose said. "Even for him, changing species was…"

"Only I know," Kate promised. "It'll stay that way. I'm not interested in drawing attention to him either, but if you need help, you only have to call me."

The promise warmed Rose. It might be a bit strange that the TARDIS has brought them to her home time, but there were many advantages. Rose had been able to slip into life as a masters student at Oxford with the Doctor as a visiting professor without any trouble. They had allies nearby in case of trouble. It was a lot easier than it could have been. When the Doctor had said that the TARDIS would take them somewhere, she'd been worried about where she might end up.

"You should look up my son Gordon while you're there," Kate said. "You've never had the chance to meet him."

"I'll think about it," Rose said. "But there's a lot that could go wrong. I'd rather not pull someone else into this."

That wasn't a lie. Kate knew some of the basics. She'd gotten an alert that Rose Tyler had enrolled in Oxford and had come investigating. Rose had told her about the Family, but not revealed the watch about her neck. As much as she trusted Kate, she wasn't going to risk the wrong person saying something about the watch. There was too much about the Family she didn't know.

The call ended, and Rose groaned, slumping into the sofa that had come with the place. It wasn't nearly as nice as her old one, and she briefly regretted giving her old furniture to Luke. Then again, storing it hadn't made any sense. She hadn't planned on returning to Earth to live. But she was. The Doctor was human, he thought they'd slept together, and the Family was hunting him. Perfect.