Disclaimer. Don't own Doctor Who.

Chapter 6.

Five minutes earlier.

Mickey had gone through twenty three toilet rolls before he had figured out what had happened. It was quite obvious that the Doctor and Rose had dragged him into their little pranking war. As he made his way back to the console room he wondered why though. One thing Mickey was sure of however, and that was that he wasn't going to stay here where he got either ignored or insulted by the Doctor, and shouted at by Rose. Oh no, he was going to walk up to the Doctor and demand to go home immediately. However as Mickey rounded the last corner into the console room he saw a slight problem with that plan. The Doctor appeared to be already occupied and was about to kiss Rose. His Rose. No, Mickey thought, she's not your Rose anymore, she broke up with you remember. It appeared as though this was the reason why. Mickey let out a bitter laugh at this point as he walked further into the room thereby announcing his presence to the other occupants.

The Doctor and Rose sprang apart so quickly it was almost comical. Rose started looking at the floor, the flush in her cheeks matching her namesake quite brilliantly. The Doctor meanwhile had turned towards the console swiftly in a fruitless attempt to hide the fact that he needed a cold shower, and fast. Mickey had half a mind to confront them about the kiss the two had been about to share, but thought better of it. Why rub salt in the wound. Now he came to think of it, they were so alike anyway he shouldn't be surprised at this turn of events. It was only ever going to be the Doctor and Rose, and Mickey was resigned to that fact. All he could do now would be to ask to go home and leave with his dignity and friendship to Rose intact. "Doctor, I want to go home." He announced.

Rose couldn't believe it, the plan had worked and Mickey had left five minutes ago. Her mind wouldn't let her dwell on that for too long though, it kept drifting back to the moment she and the Doctor had shared in the console room. Rose was quite sure the Doctor had been about to kiss her, but then she quickly dismissed that thought when she thought of his prank on her back when this had all started. No, she thought resolutely. He only thought of her as a friend, he must have been about to talk to her or something like that. Rose was very glad they had been interrupted before she ruined her friendship with the Doctor by kissing him. She decided that she wouldn't mention it again to the Doctor but just commit it to her memories instead. One good thing had come out of this though, and that was that she didn't have to worry about leaving a false trail leading to Mickey about the letter.

The Doctor stood in the shower cubicle with his head against the wall, content to simply allow the cold water to cascade down his body. The Doctor had been taking cold showers for a while now (at least since he had fallen in love with Rose) andhe was somewhat used to them. He was confused, now it took a lot of doing to get him confused and he had Rose to thank for it. As he felt the water doing its job, he contemplated what to do about the kiss that wasn't. He wanted to take things further with Rose but at the same time he knew getting involved might be a bad idea.

Everyone he had ever cared about had either died or left. He reasoned. But she hasn't left though has she? His mind supplied helpfully. Even when you sent her away she came back. The Doctor resolutely ignored that and thought up another objection.

He was over nine hundred years old and she wasn't even twenty one. Ah, but her DNA could be modified to resemble yours somewhat. After all, the TARDIS has done that already to turn her into the Bad Wolf.

"No", the Doctor said aloud. He was not going to allow that to happen at all, as tempting as it was it was also risky. And the Doctor would die before allowing her to be hurt by his hands.

Rose didn't like him like that. Really? And I suppose you just imagined the little moment you had back there. What was she, a hallucination? His mind argued back.

As he fought to come up with a response to that, he realised how ridiculous he was being. Arguing with himself, and in the shower no less. If only Rose could see him now, he thought before remembering again that he was in the shower and worse, the coldwater hadn't done nearly as good a job as usual. Maybe it was better that she couldn't see him now, he conceded. Usually the temperature of the water would have done its job by now. But then again, when he usually had to take a cold shower, he hadn't just had Rose in his arms, her warm body pressing against his as she hadlaughed. The Doctor gulped as that train of thought brought him back to the kiss that wasn't. Sighing he turned the hot water on as the cold water clearly wasn't going to do anything more. He thought about that moment again, and what he was going to do about it. He doubted that Rose felt that way about him. She was probably just about to say something to him. Whether she liked him that way or not, he decided that he would not say anything about trying to kiss her. If she mentioned anything, well he would figure out how to deal with that if the time came. As he finished his shower and got out, he remembered that he was supposed to be in a pranking war with Rose. And he had just come up with a perfect prank for her.

Put chili powder on her clothes.

The Doctor dried himself off and left the bathroom to set about his revenge.