Field of Roses

Rating: K
Pairing: 9th/Rose
Disclaimer: Don't own them, love playing with them.
Summary: It's Rose's birthday, where does the Doctor take her? The planet of roses of course!
AN: for eeveekitty85. It's her birthday. Happy Birthday Eevee, luv from
morph and Cossie! Rose glanced at the calendar lying on her lap and sighed. There it was, circled numerous times with a red pen. The twenty third of February, by her time. She was now twenty, the big two-oh. "I'm getting old," she muttered to herself.

There was a knock at her bedroom door and she scrabbled to try to shove the calendar under her bed. The last thing she needed today was for Jack or the Doctor to make a fuss over her for her birthday. The Doctor opened the door and smiled, catching her in the process of hastily pushing something under her bed. "What have you got there?"

Rose looked up, her eyes wide. "Uh, nothing."

He gave her a look. "C'mon let's have a look." Gently he reached under her bed and pulled out the square object. "A calendar?" He flicked it open to February and grinned.
"Rose! Is it your birthday?" She snatched at the calendar, her hands meeting only air as he held it up higher.

"How d'you know it's February by my clock?"

He looked at her sceptically. "As if I can't see the calendar in the tea room. Come on Rose, let's celebrate!"

She gave him a look of disdain and muttered something, flopping down on the bed.

"What was that?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't want to celebrate," Rose repeated. "There's nothing to celebrate."

"Why d'you say that?"

"Because I'm old now. I don't want to feel old."

The Doctor laughed. "Old? You? You're not old! I'm old!"

Rose rolled her eyes.

He raised an eyebrow, getting an idea. He threw the calendar down on her bed, and hurried out the door. "Doctor?" Rose called, but he was gone. She sighed. There was going to be fuss. She just knew it. The Doctor hurried around the console pulling levers and pushing buttons, setting the TARDIS to a little corner of the universe he had been saving for a special occasion. Rose came wandering out to the console room, a jeans jacket slung carelessly over her shoulder. She smiled at Jack who was sitting in the corner, his eyes focused on a book in his lap. The Doctor paused to give her a flash of a smile before returning to his hurried movements.

"Come on girl," he murmured softly to the TARDIS. "Almost there." There was a thud and the Doctor grinned. "Open the door, Rose. Tell me what you see."

Rose rolled her eyes but obeyed. She glanced out for the briefest of moments before shutting the door. "It's another planet," she declared, bored.

"Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Jack commented from his corner. "And it wasn't me, although I have woken up in the wrong bed in some occasions before I met you guys."

Both Rose and the Doctor shot him a look.

"Go on, Rose. Look properly," The Doctor urged. She pulled the door open and stepped outside the TARDIS. This time, she really took it in. For as far as she could see, there were roses, in varying different colours; red, pink, yellow, white. There were even vast patches of blue roses.

"Oh, this is so hokey."

The Doctor grinned, leaning on the TARDIS doorframe. "Happy birthday."

"Where exactly are we?"

"Planet Egre in the EK85 partial galactic community, 4006," the Doctor told her. Rose blinked.

"I know I should be used to this by now, but… English?"

"Planet Egre was founded as a farming planet in the rural area of EK85," the Time Lord explained. "It's named after a woman named Emily Holyoake. She was the first woman space pioneer to reach this far out of the Milky Way. Egre has been warped from Eager, which is what Emily means."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Alright, I wasn't asking for your life's history." She turned and picked a rose and held it to her nose. "Smells alright." She smiled.

"Well, you coming then?" The Doctor and Jack stepped out of the TARDIS and onto the planet.

"Happy birthday, Rose."