Disclaimer. Don't own Doctor Who.
Chapter 8.
The Doctor quickly closed the door after Rose as they entered the TARDIS. He paced up and down as he wondered how to make her better. He determined it would be best to get her to her bedroom to make her more comfortable. All rational thought was driven out of his head for the second time that day however when he turned around to find that Rose had stripped down to her underwear. Rose stood in front of him wearing a white lace bra with matching French knickers and she was fanning herself with her hand. Trying to prevent himself from just pushing her up against the TARDIS wall and having his way with her, he spoke instead and surprised himself by managing to tell her that he wanted to get her to her bedroom, and not sound like some kind of pervert.
He had gotten Rose settled on top of her bed and had arranged for the temperature to be turned down in her room so that she could cool down a little. As he glanced aside however he spotted the outfit shehad beenwearing on the floor by her wardrobe. Taking another quick look to see if he was imagining things, he found he was not. The exact same tank top and jeans Rosehad left on the floor of the console room were lying on the floor in her bedroom looking perfectly innocent. Then it clicked into place, she had tricked him. She must have known what he had done this morning and worn the other set of clothes. She hadn't told him she was allergic to chili because she wasn't.
Looking at her now, he noticed that her actions weren't consistent with those from an allergic reaction thus confirming his theory. He was going to get her for this, he thought. He adopted a concerned expression as he spoke to her.
"Now Rose, I'm going to run you a nice cold bath because we have to cool your body down as much as possible." He left the room to run the bath and was gratified to note the worried expression she wore when he returned.
Rose noticing he had come back into the room quickly went back to her fake acting. She didn't want a cold bath because there was nothing wrong with her. She couldn't tell the Doctor that though without giving away what she had done. On a whim, she gave a pitiful sigh and tried to look tired. The Doctor's concerned expression returned when she did this, and he questioned softly as to if she was too tired to make it to the bathroom. Relief flooded through her and she nodded her head.
This was what the Doctor had been hoping for. He scooped her up bridal style and carried her to the bathroom, whilst trying to ignore the fact that there was an almost naked Rose in his arms. Reaching the edge of the bath, he lowered her quite quickly into the cold water before she could escape his hold on her. He managed to keep a straight face at her horrified squeak as the cold water hit her body and soaked through the underwear she was still wearing. "Right, now you'll need to stay there until you feel your temperature going back to normal. I'm going to take proper care of you Rose Tyler so these baths will be continuing until you are completely better." With that he turned and walked from the room.
Two days later, she was still quite mad at him.He had dumped her into a bath of cold water and now, if she so much as mentioned being a little bit warm, he would keep on at her to have another one. OK, so she probably deserved it for playing that joke on him about being allergic to chili, but she had only done that in retaliation to what he had beengoing to do to her. She had enjoyed the feeling of being in his arms as he had carried her to the bathroom though. The problem was that the thought of it repeated itself on her at the most inopportune moments, like whenever he turned to talk to her. Whenever this happened, she relived the feel of his arms around her body once more. This had the negative consequence of causing her to blush profusely to questions such as whether she wanted to visit Callufrax or Telos next, or if she could pass him a knife and fork.
The Doctor sat on the bed in his room congratulating himself on a job well done. Granted, his prank hadn't played out as he had imagined, but he still managed to exact revenge on her for the hair gel incident with the cold bath he had given her. He bit out a moan as the image of her semi naked form in his arms floated at the forefront of his mind. When he had put her in the bath, he'd had to leave the room fast before he completely lost his self-control.
She didn't think of him that way though, he thought despondently. After all, she still hadn't brought up the fact they had almost kissed. The hatred the Doctor held towards Mickey for interrupting them rivaled his hatred for the Daleks and that was saying something. He had so wanted to kiss her, still did. He thought back to his feeble attempts to dissipate his attraction towards Rose. He had thought, if she had someone there she was attracted to, then he could keep his distance. Adam seemed like a good candidate for the job, he was around the same age as Rose and they seemed to get on well. The Doctor had thought that they would be a good match. He hadn't accounted for the boy being so impulsive and greedy, he would get a chip implanted in his head without a second thought and try to steal knowledge from the future for his personal gain. There was no way Adam would have been good enough for his Rose so the Doctor had dropped him as quickly as he possibly could.
Then Jack had been brought aboard. Not by design at first, the Doctor had simply wished to save him from death. However upon seeing the flirtatious interaction between the pair, he was given a good reason to allow theformer time agent to stay. That hadn't worked either, the Doctor recalled. Their flirting was completely innocent to them and was just a show of their friendship. By the time the Doctor had figured this out however, Jack had become almost as good a friend to him as he had to Rose.
After his regeneration, he had thought his feelings towards Rose would go away upon seeing her reject his new form. To his dismay though, she had accepted him fairly easily and been more than happy to go back to their close, hand holding relationship they had. That had been the final straw for him as he fell completely in love with her. He had jumped at the chance to have Mickey on board when Sarah-Jane had suggested it, he paid no regard to the fact that Rose was begging him not to allow it. The Doctor had felt his temper rise whenever Mickey had tried to hug or kiss Rose, and so it was a relief when he had met Reinette. Whenshe had kissed him, he imagined that the lips upon his belonged to Rose, not Reinette. When he had been informed of Reinette's death, he had felt awful for using her so terribly. He hadn't been in love with the French aristocrat and he knew it. So accepting the fact that he could not escape his feelings, he resigned himself to loving Rose from afar.