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The first thing Rose noticed when she woke up, eyes still shut tight, was the starchy feel of the linen bed sheets. Her heart sank immediately. She knew what that meant - she was in a hospital. She wondered what had happened this time, which accident from work had brought her here once again. She hoped it wasn't serious, mostly because she didn't want to have to listen to her mum's lecture (which Rose knew by heart) about how dangerous Torchwood was and how she should never have taken the job when Pete offered it, for what was probably the millionth time.
She tried to recall what had happened, and her eyes flew open as she remembered landing in the TARDIS.
The first thing she saw was the Doctor, sprawled out in a chair that had been pulled up to her bed, his eyes closed and mouth wide open. Her heart jolted in her chest as she gazed at the man – well, the alien – she had been trying to find for so long now.
He let out what sounded like a soft snore and she suppressed a chuckle. When they had travelled together it wasn't often that she caught him sleeping. He was always carrying on about how his superior Time Lord genes meant he only needed half as much as humans.
She studied his face closely and could see his eyes were ringed by dark circles, and was it her imagination or was he even skinnier than the last time they'd seen each other?
She hardly dared to believe this was real. The Doctor was right in front of her, a little pale and obviously exhausted, but he was here. She bit her lip. How was it possible? Watching the Doctor wriggle in his sleep, Rose quickly decided she didn't care. It had happened and that was good enough for her.
Even though she was itching to hear his voice again, Rose didn't want to wake him (he looked like he needed all the sleep he could get) so she settled for gazing around the med bay. She'd been here a few times before of course, when she or the Doctor had gotten hurt on one of their adventures, but it wasn't a terribly exciting place. She got bored quickly, until she realised the TARDIS had changed the roof to show swirling galaxies and brightly glowing stars. Like in Harry Potter, Rose thought to herself with a grin. She'd really missed the TARDIS, and how the ship seemed to always know just what she needed to cheer up.
From the corner of her eye she caught movement to her right and turned her head to see the Doctor sitting up and staring at her, suddenly wide-awake.
Doubt abruptly flooded her mind. What if he didn't want her here?
Pushing aside the terrifying thought, she managed a half-smile.
"Hey," she said softly.
His face slowly split into a disbelieving grin. "Hi!"
She took in his manic grin, and his crumpled suit, and the way his hair was sticking up at odd angles. She met his warm brown eyes, the very ones she'd thought were lost to her forever, with her own. Then, without warning, she was crying. Instantly the Doctor was up, hands hovering uncertainly over her.
"Rose, what's wrong?" He asked, voice urgent with concern.
She struggled to take a breath in between sobs.
"I just – I missed you so much!"
She saw him relax slightly and all of a sudden his arms were around her in one of their signature hugs. She buried her face in his neck and he held her a little bit tighter.
"Rose," she heard him choke out.
She squeezed her eyes shut and let herself cry. She had been through so much since they'd been divided and she never thought she'd have a chance to see him again, let alone hug him.
Out of all the things she had lost when she was separated from the Doctor, their constant hugs were one of those she missed the most. Without fail his warm arms made her feel protected from any threat. When she had fallen through the void into Pete's world, she had felt as if her whole world had been ripped from her. She'd felt vulnerable.
It made the first few months in parallel London almost unbearable. And even though she had eventually built herself back up again, Rose had never felt as truly safe as she did when the Doctor held her.
She wasn't sure exactly how much time they spent hugging, but it was long enough that she eventually ran out of tears. At some point the Doctor had shifted so that he was sitting on her bed.
"Sorry," she sniffed, pulling back in embarrassment. "Ruined your shirt."
He lifted a shoulder in an unconcerned shrug. Reaching out to thread his fingers through hers, he smiled to reassure her that everything was okay.
He took a deep breath. "Rose, I missed you ... more than I can say. You're my best friend."
"And you're mine," she stated simply.
And that was all they needed to say.
Exhausted, Rose rested her head on the Doctor's shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her back. For the first time in years, she felt as though everything would be okay.
Rose must've fallen back to sleep because the next thing she knew the Doctor was back in the chair next to her, reading a book in Gallifreyan. As soon as he saw she was awake he straightened up, setting the book aside.
"Hello!" He grinned.
She stretched out her aching muscles and yawned. "How long was I out?"
He rubbed the back of his neck unconsciously. "About twenty hours, this time."
"Twenty – ?! Talk about sleeping in!"
He grinned again before what he'd just said clicked with her. "Hold on, 'this time'? What about before?"
"...Almost five and a half days."
"What? Why?!"
His face darkened. "Rose… you were in pretty bad shape when you landed in the console room. You were covered in bruises and cuts, and you'd broken a few bones, which will have healed up while you were unconscious. Apart from all of that you were extremely sick, and I couldn't figure out why. I still don't know what was wrong. The TARDIS didn't have anything that could help so I did the only thing I could think of."
He didn't expand on the statement, and seemed to be unable to look up from his converse to meet her gaze.
"Well?" she prodded, becoming increasingly nervous as she watched the Doctor's evasive behaviour. She knew he would never intentionally cause her harm, but if she'd been dying and he'd had no other choice…
She bumped him gently with her shoulder. "C'mon, don't leave me in suspense!"
He looked directly at her now, agitation obvious in his every movement, before blurting out, "I did the only thing I could – I didn't have any other choice, you were dying, Rose! But I didn't know how it would affect you, if there would be any permanent side effects, so to speak..."
Uh oh. Suddenly she didn't want to know. Not now. Not when they'd only just been reunited. She knew, logically, that they'd have to talk about whatever was wrong with her, but for the moment she simply wanted to be carefree Rose Tyler in the TARDIS with the Doctor.
He was still rambling, "I'm sorry, Rose. Really I am. If there any other way –"
She held up a hand to stop him. "Okay, that's enough."
He tilted his head in a silent question.
"I don't wanna know yet."
The Doctor opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off.
"No, hear me out. Is it anything I absolutely need to know within the next 24 hours?"
He hesitated, considering. "Well, I suppose not, but – "
"Then it can wait until I'm feeling up to having this conversation," she interrupted firmly.
The Doctor leant back in his chair, looking reluctant but obviously not willing to press the subject.
"Well then, Rose Tyler," he said, causing her to beam at the familiar way he pronounced her name. "I believe we've got a bit of catching up to do. Fancy some chips?"
"Ohh, yes please!" She nodded in delight. "I haven't had any decent chips since I left. I'll just have a shower real quick."
"Of course," he agreed, holding out his hand to help her out of the bed. "I'll be waiting in the kitchen when you're ready."
The hot water of her shower was heavenly. Rose spent five minutes just letting the water warm her up, taking away the aching in her muscles. Finally shutting the water off, she stepped out of the shower, dried herself, and moved into her old room.
Everything was exactly as she remembered it, from the bright pink walls and the photos on the dresser to the jeans she'd left lying on the floor the day before Canary Wharf.
She picked her outfit without much thought for anything other than comfort, just a t-shirt and some trousers, before making her way through the TARDIS corridors to the kitchen, where she found the Doctor sitting at the bench staring at the bowl of chips in front of him. He was frowning slightly, as though he was thinking about something troubling. Probably whatever it was that went wrong when he tried to heal her, Rose concluded.
As soon as she walked in though, he looked up and snapped out of his pensive state.
"Feeling better?" He asked with a smile.
"Heaps, ta." Rose took the seat opposite him and pulled the chips towards herself. "These look gorgeous."
"Yeah, well, I don't want to brag, but I made some pretty mean chips."
"You mean the TARDIS makes them and you take all the credit?" She teased him, sticking her tongue between her teeth and grinning.
He gasped in mock outrage. "I'll have you know, Rose Tyler, that I am a fantastic chef."
"If you say so," she shrugged, popping a chip into her mouth and humming appreciatively. "Mmmm, they just don't make them like this in Pete's world."
"Don't they?" The Doctor asked in surprise.
"Nope. Everywhere I went the chips had a weird flavour. Their chocolate though – so much better than ours."
"Not as good as Thaxatoorian chocolate, I bet. Did I ever take you there? Huge monuments dedicated to the Cocoa Gods –"
She let him ramble on, content to watch his exaggerated hand gestures and fanatical facial expressions. Rose was almost surprised at how easily they slipped back to their old banter. It was comforting to know that no matter how much time had passed things would never become awkward between them.
They kept chatting about trivial things until the chips were gone and Rose knew it was time to talk about more serious topics.
"So you're not – you don't have a new companion yet?"
He shook his head. "There was this one woman, Donna her name is, and you would've liked her, I think. She couldn't come with me but she said I needed to find someone who would. It's been a year though, and no one else seemed right. So…" he shrugged. "What about you? How long has it been since Canary Wharf?"
He said the last two words as if they left a bad taste in his mouth. She definitely knew how he felt.
She cleared her throat. "Three years."
He raised his eyebrows. "Wow."
"Yep."
"How did you manage to get back here?"
She stared at him blankly, wondering what he meant.
"Don't get me wrong I'm thrilled you did!" He rushed to add on, misinterpreting her silence. "It's just that when I was looking for a way to say goodbye to you I checked the entire universe for any holes that could potentially let something pass between parallel dimensions, and I definitely didn't find one here. So how were you able to get through?"
She frowned, perplexed. "You mean you didn't bring me here?"
"No, I –" His forehead crinkled in confusion. "I thought you must have somehow found a way through by yourself."
Rose shook her head. "I have no idea how I got here. One minute I was talking to dad and the next I was in the console room."
"And the scratches and bruises?"
"Huh?"
The Doctor huffed, although she suspected it was more out of concern than irritation. "When you appeared in the TARDIS you were hurt, Rose. Badly. You don't remember how that happened to you?"
She shook her head again, feeling very overwhelmed. The Doctor must have seen it in her face because he instantly backed off.
"Hey," he said gently, reaching for her hand over the bench and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "We'll figure it out later. It might take a while but we'll get there. The important thing is you're here now."
She gave him a grateful smile and he switched topics to distract her.
"So how is everyone? Mr Mickey still alive and kicking?"
"Yeah, Mickey's doing great," Rose answered, happy to tell the Doctor about what was new. "He's a senior technician at Torchwood now, dad might have had something to do with his promotion but that's only because he knows Mickey deserves it."
"You call Pete 'dad'?" He asked, appearing pleasantly surprised.
"Mostly, yeah. We got off to a bit of a rocky start those first few weeks, but we're close now. And mum's taken to the life of the rich and famous like a duck to water."
"Oh, I bet she has!" The Doctor responded, causing both of them to burst into a fit of giggles.
"Anyway," Rose continued after they'd got a handle on themselves. "Jake's about to lead a team over to Asia, apparently there have been a few suspicious disappearances over there lately and he's one of Torchwood's best men. Tony's getting bigger every time I look at him, I swear –"
"Hold on a sec, I don't think I remember a Tony?"
Rose blinked. She'd completely forgotten for a moment that the Doctor had never got the chance to meet her little brother.
"Oh, right. Of course." She patted her pockets for her phone to show him a few pictures and had a moment of panic when she couldn't find it. Realising it must be in her bedroom, she let the Doctor know she'd be right back and went to find it.
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