A Gestured Shared

The Doctor stared carefully, at the long expanse of exposed skin in front of him. Stiffly, Rose seemed to bite back a groan as he lowered her to the examination table. She grinned slightly, rolling her shoulders back with a slight wince. He carefully lifted her leg, trying to ignore how he purposefully let his fingertips slide down the length of her bare skin. Her skin was smooth, slightly tan and bare of any hair as he knew woman of the twenty-first century tended to shave. He let his fingers linger more than he should have, but well, he was wary of going near the bruised, possibly twisted ankle he told himself as an excuse. She didn't say a word, and he gingerly touched it. The only indication that it hurt for her was that she jumped; shoulders tensing as she let out a hiss.

"Defiantly twisted."he said after a moment, reaching over with a scanner, glancing at the display. It turned out a negative for broken though.

"Well, will I live?"she asked, grinning again.

He raised a brow, but couldn't help but grin back.

"Yeah. And you've also learned a valuable lesson."

She scoffed as he applied the stimulation cream to allow her cells to hyper activate, and heal quicker. She examined with curiosity as her vivid bruise went through the various phases, from purple to a sickly green and yellow, until it turned into a slightly pinker version of the skin around it. She hummed for a minute, expertly twisting 'round her ankle before she looked back at him with a raise brow. She extended a hand, and he reluctantly passed her the cream as she quickly put it on her other bruises.

"And what lesson is that?"she asked, a smile on her lips as he placed a strip along her various cuts, and they stitched up as quickly as her bruises.

He handed her the tin of them when she flicked her fingertips toward herself, and she placed them on the rest of her cuts as he put away the bruise cream.

"That you shouldn't kick the head off of a ten-foot Landon."he said, and she rolled her eyes.

Rolled her eyes!

"In my defense, they have two heads, it's not as if he needs them both. And he was about to detach yours!"she said, and she said it as if she was being reasonable. She was, but she didn't have to know that.

"And that justifies you jumping off the higher platform to kick his head off, and then ride him like a bucking horse? Oh, and get flung off into the wall."

"The walls were made of clouds."

"Atmospheric aerosols in a super condescend form; elastic and form conforming to any sort of disturbance."he replied smartly.

She grinned.

"Yeah, that's a cloud Doctor."

"But not as fun to say."he responded back, grinning.

She laughed, and jumped off the table as the strips fell off once they healed her. She gathered them up and tossed them towards the recycle with quick, easy movements. She held out her hand, and he handed her a small, clear pill. It contained a mixture of a stimulus to help her body recover from the rapid healing and not go into shock, as well as to boost up her immune system. Rose didn't bat an eyelash, already used to the pill that he had given her since her first injury, she accepted the water and downed it in quick succession. She put back on her sock and shoes, a pair of chucks he noticed with a raise brow. Pink of course. She patted the table once she had put the glass in the sink, raising a dark brow.

"Well, come on, budge up."

He frowned.

"I'm fine."he said, tugging at his ears.

She frowned at him, and reached over carefully. The Doctor tried not to flinch as her hand came to rest just bellow the cut on his neck.

"Yeah, that's not fine."she said, and she looked at it curiously.

Staring at his darker colored blood no doubt. He shrugged, and crossed his arms stubbornly.

"I can take care of my own scrapes. Go on, go see some telly or see if you can find the Library before you go to sleep."

"Right."she mentioned, and she seemed not to believe him, nor want to follow his very helpful instructions, thank you very much.

Tugging him by the lapels of his jacket, she pulled him over to the table. Patting the seat again as he debated whether or not to jump on. On the one hand, he really didn't want her healing him up. On the other, he was going to be aching all day if he didn't get this sorted out. And he knew for sure Rose wouldn't move, looking as mulish as she did. It was sort of ridiculous he thought, as he jumped on the table, taking off his jacket, and slipping his jumper over his head, that he was so easily lead around by this girl. The table automatically adjusted to suit her height, and she hummed as she headed over to what he had told her of the things that were suited to his biology.

They had been traveling together for about a four Sol 3 months at this point, he mused as he watched her pick out things with expert hands. Her fingertips hovered over the Gaillfreyan, not understanding titles or meanings, but no doubt remembering the shapes. Rose had a very good memory, and tended to pick up on patterns very quickly. One of the qualities that made her... Well, as he had come to discover over the short time they had spent together, made the girl was very, very good at his sort of life.

It was eerie really, how easily she came to accept things and to stand next to him. In this time frame, this had been about the sixteenth times in the med bay. This girl had the uncanny ability to be one step ahead, to gauge things, ask the right questions, and boy, could she run. She hadn't been to shabby when he first met her, but seemingly getting some practice in had helped her a lot.

He of course, disliked coming to the infirmary other than to stock up. But, considering the amount of scrapes they had gotten to in the past four months, he figure sixteen wasn't too bad a number. Also, considering the fact that none of them had gotten a bad enough injury to get into the Healing Tube? He found that to be a plus.

"So, if I remember right, this is for cuts."she said, and his eyes flickered to her face as he nodded.

She carefully placed the cool cream on his neck in tentative, small circles. The Doctor held back a hiss as his cells, about a hundred or so, came up to responded to it, leaching onto the cream and stitching his neck back together in a painful burn. Rose tsked at his small hiss, muttering. She gave him the cut cream, and set off to his bruises as he preoccupied himself with his many cuts.

"Fine my arse."she said, and he rolled his eyes at her for sass.

"Yeah, well, I believe your words before we went into the infirmary were; 'Oh, Doctor, don't worry about me, just go on and repair that broken bit in the TARDIS's Console' ."he said, and he very much wished to tell her as she simply frowned at him, that no, he was not smirking.

Even if he was. She narrowed her eyes, hands on hips.

"You're a menace. All you do is sonic and check things that you don't need to. I mean really, I didn't need you to check my egg count or how many stands of hair I have on my head."she said back, adjusting her very short shorts that had gotten them in the trouble in the first place with the very conservative Ladoon society.

He eyed them, and shrugged at her annoyance.

"Well, I thought it was what you wanted to know after that incident in Venus with that fertility crazed Mayor chasing you and trying to tear out said hair because of its aphrodisiac qualities."he mentioned, frowning at her.

Honestly, humans were so confusing. Or at least this human was. She always found a way to surprise or unbalance him. Even after four months, he found he couldn't figure her out.

"Yeah, don't want you poking around me. Crazy Venusian bint or not."she said pointedly.

He sighed, and shrugged. Rose narrowed her eyes, rolled them, and the walked away. Porrco, who had a fascination with the pink and yellow girl(today she had chosen a pink, flora shirt that had caught the attention of the Ladoon who had, of course, tried to take his head as consequence for not being able to control his female in wearing so little and wearing the colors... Of a prostitute), followed after her, trailing behind her, his little hooves clopping after her in an easy, smooth gait. He noticed with a grin that there was no more pain to the small swine's movements. He had adjusted to his bipedal stride easily, and the pain after the readjustment surgery had been minimal.

"I'll be in the Library if you need me Doctor."she called over her shoulder, waving.

"I'll be in the Console room."he replied, jumping off the table. It righted to its normal height, and he put away the creams, and slipped his clothes back on in quick succession.

The Doctor went right where he had said he would, and he tossed himself into the repairs.

~BW~DW~BW~DW~BW~

He stared at the underside of the Console with a frown, trying to adjust a piece of wire with his sonic as it had been disconnected, five hours or so later. He felt a slight sweat working up, and he was glad for the fact that he had chucked his jacket onto the jump seat two hours ago. He wiggled a little, trying to get deeper into the mass amount of tubes, wires, and got a set of sparks for his efforts. Ignoring that, he went 'round, trying to get to what looked like a ripped tube.

The TARDIS gave a hum, softly, almost like she was warning him. He stopped, scowling at her, put froze in his efforts as something occurred to him, because the TARDIS was trying to get him out. He heard distinctly the sound of hooves against the metal grating. The Doctor crawled a bit, and came face to face to Porrco. He snuffled, and the Doctor, ignoring the grease on his hand, patted his head carefully.

"Hello, there."he muttered, and the pig grunted in greeting, before he stepped back.

Bare feet met his gaze, and the Doctor followed the expanse of skin to met Rose's grinning face. She was holding a mobile electronic reader from the twenty-first century a few years ahead of her's in one hand, and a cup of tea in the other. Her hair was wet, and a towel was 'round her shoulders.

"I found the pool you mentioned the other day." she said, and her clothes dripped onto the floor.

He grinned.

"Fantastic."

She laughed, and walked over to the jump seat, sitting on a towel that was already there.

"I fell in."she said, raising a brow.

"I can see that."

She grinned.

"Yeah, I think the TARDIS did it on purpose. Why else would she put it in the Library?"she said with a wise air, feet up on the console, wiggling her little toes, painted blue. Said TARDIS gave a hum of amusement, though of course Rose didn't know that.

He scowled at her, and pushed off her feet. She just sipped her tea, eyes sparkling.

"You fix the broken pump thingy?"

He shook his head a negative and tugged on his ear.

"I haven't gotten 'round to it. There's a vortex connection tube that warped and doesn't fit into the Vortex chamber anymore, and then there was a few wires that-"

Rose just looked at him with a raised brow, and he sighed.

"If only you had passed Hullabaloo."he mentioned, and she snorted, taking a measured swig of tea.

"Yeah, one day you'll find someone who can help with the TARDIS. The Old Girl deserves someone with a loving touch after you go 'round with that mallet."

She patted the console as she said this, fingertips gentle and fond. Her eyes sparkles. At this it was his turn to roll his eyes.

"Sometimes she needs to know who's boss."

He leaned against the console with his hip, grabbing his handy mallet(which he had found in Rose's room the other day), smacking the TARDIS for emphasis, and for his effort got a sharp shock. He jumped, and glared at the ceiling as Rose giggled.

"Right. Good to know she get's the message."she replied smartly, and she took another drink.

His eyes flickered to her reader, and he found himself raising a brow at the astronomy textbook from the late Ninetieth century displayed on the screen. He picked it up, and found that she was already three quarters of the way through.

"What's this for?"he asked, and she shrugged.

"It's interesting. Besides, next time you start going on about a nebula or pulsars I might actually be able to follow."

Smart, he thought handing it back. She was prone to read on their down time, which had come as a surprise to him. For one, he hadn't pegged her for a reader. When he had asked, she had sighed and said very quietly that she hadn't really had the time growing up. That had brought a somber mood to the Doctor, for he could tell as she plunged back into a worn version of A Christmas Carol that she was very fond of it, though she mentioned offhandedly that she hadn't remember owing a copy. Of course, because of it, he had visited a younger version of Rose while the elder slept. He hadn't talked to her of course, just watched as she helped her mother at a salon near the estate.

It was the holidays, he had noticed, but that little twelve or so girl had followed behind her mother without complaint and even a smile, sweeping the floor as she chatted with the customers. When he had happen to over hear Jackie telling the younger girl after work that she couldn't afford the bike she had wanted because their landlord had put up the rent, the little girl had been visibly disappointed. But she had pushed that aside and told her mum that it was fine with a forced smile.

He had left her a red bicycle and a copy of A Christmas Carol on impulse.

"Fantastic."he said, coming to the present and she beamed at him, eyes sparkling.

The Doctor tried to ignore how his hearts sped at the gesture. She took another drink of tea, before she went back to her book, humming. He stared at her for a fraction of a second, and found himself pondering the strange human as he had come to do a lot. She really was fantastic, he thought, watching as Porrco scrambled up to join her on the seat, she lifted her arms so the little piglet could snuggle into her side without complaint or thought. Again, he knew that she liked reading, but by the fact that it extended to actually learning was amazing. It struck him then that if that was the case, why did she leave school?

He hadn't even realized he had said that aloud until he found her staring at him, brows raised towards her hairline.

"I was fifteen."she started, slowly, and he settled himself to go back to working on the TARDIS.

She looked almost embarrassed at his question, and he felt as if she needed to say this without the stigma of him staring. He was right, because she continued once he crawled back under the Console;

"I was fifteen and there was this bloke. Jimmy Stone, he was older. 'Bout nineteen or so, and he was playing at the pub I was working at."

He paused, his mind flickering back to the twelve year old Rose helping her around the salon, probably gaining a bit of money for her efforts. No doubt her working to help her mum at fifteen was a logical next step.

"He was a passable musician, and his band was about the same as him. Not bad, but he was playing at a pub in the estate area of town, so he wasn't great. But he had this sort of... Sort of thing that could charm the pants off of anyone. He was a flirt, always did so after a playing for a bit. But the more and more he played at the pub the more he came to talk to me."

She paused here, sipped her tea. He craned his next to look at her, and he got a glimpse of a funny little smile on her lips through the wires.

"I always wanted to be a singer, growing up. And he asked me to sing when his mate was puking in the back room, last resort, he didn't want to get sacked, I bet. But I didn't really think when I said yes. I was so nervous, but Jimmy, Jimmy said I would be great. Said it through his teeth, but it was enough for me. So I sang, sang my stupid lungs out."

"Where you any good?"asked the Doctor, pausing from the repairs again.

Rose shrugged he again through the mass of wires and tubes, staring at the mug in her hand as if the tea held all the answers of the universe.

"I did alright. His mate was sacked and my boss asked me to take over. It paid better than being a waitress, so I did. Tips were great, and I got to hang out more with Jimmy."

She snorted here, and patted Porrco softly on the snout.

"Fell in love with the wanker. I could help it, you know? He was older, fit, and he gave me a chance to sing. And that was all I wanted to do, sing. Sing until I was big and famous, my name in glitterin' lights."

He went back to his repairs slowly, his mind whirling to what this story seemed to be leading to. It didn't seem to have a happy ending.

"I ran off with him. Quit school, and we lived pretty okay for a while. He had this construction job in the day, I went to work in a lil' video shop, Sparrow and Nightingale, I think it was called, so we could pay the rent and the bills until we could support ourselves with just the band."

She laughed here.

"We got another gig at this good pub. Uptown. I was so happy. Jimmy quit his construction job. I quit Sparrow and Nightingale. It was amazing. I thought all my dreams started to come true."

"What went wrong?"he asked, softly.

Rose sighed.

"Jimmy got in his head that he was going to become the next biggest thing since the Beatles. Started buying way above the money we were makin'. Nice hotrod, good clothes, expensive restaurants, the like. I didn't think. I really didn', I mean, I was sixteen then, and I thought we were makin' it big. I went right along with him, buying left and right."

He frowned slightly, and thought that seemed unlike her. Or, at least it seemed unlike her now...

"It wasn't until the eviction notice came in did I snap out of it. I was a little young to be the one paying that directly, and I asked Jimmy what that was 'bout. He laughed it off. So I ignored it."

"What happened?"

"We were kicked out of our flat. We crashed at a mate's, and laughed it off. Or at least he did. I started to return all of the stuff I bought. He didn't. We started to fight about it. Started off small. It wasn't until a day after a gig a month later did it escalate to a proper row, yellin' and everythin'."

At this, Rose ran a hand through her long hair, and sighed again.

"I didn't even see the punch coming."she confessed quietly.

The Doctor tensed, looking over at her with wide eyes. She paused, swinging her feet on the jump seat as Porrco nudged her softly, as if he was comforting her. She rubbed softly between his ears.

"I never realized what type of man he was until he hit me. Oh, he apologized as soon as he did it. But I got a black eye as a result, and somehow I knew he wasn't going to stop at that. I wasn't going to be some stupid bint in a Soap, or at least that was my one coherent thought at the time. Again, I wasn't thinkin' right, I may have been a little drunk myself when I grabbed his keys, kicked him in the soft spot when he tried to stop me, and nabbed all of my stuff and ran out of the flat."

She grinned.

"I crashed that stupid hotrod Jimmy loved so much into a some rich bloke's shop and got my arse landed in the hospital for my efforts. A broken arm, two broken ribs, and a concussion. The man that owned the shop wanted compensation."

She laughed, again.

"He wasn't completely heartless. He said if I could work off the amount of the damages in the shop itself, he wouldn't press criminal charges. He gave me an out, I took it, and I decided I wasn't cut out to be a singer. Not if it took all that crap. I called my mum, and she took me back into the flat, no questions asked."

He stopped, and crawled out from under the Console to look at her, nothing in the way. Her chin was high, and she looked regretful but not overly devastated by the entire thing. Maybe once upon a time she had been, he thought, watching her drink some more of her tea. But Rose had grown past all of that. She had moved on, and taken in all the consequences of her actions at sixteen with a maturity that most didn't have at that tender age.

"What happened to Jimmy Stone?"

She gave him a wolfish smile at that.

"Got fired of all his gigs without me in the band. Got into a load of debt, same as me. Tried to start somethin', stalked me for a bit. Even attacked me at my mum's flat, but then Mickey came in, like a hero, and kicked his arse. I pressed charges, and Jimmy is currently serving a twelve year sentence."she said this with a triumphant tone, eyes shinning.

Suddenly, the Doctor thought that maybe the angry ape called Mickey Smith wasn't so bad after all.

"You moved on."

She shrugged.

"You do that, the Universe throws stuff at you you can't avoid, and then you move past it. Took me a bit, it was hard. I was bitter for a very long time. Thought that I deserved more and all that. But then time passes. And everything, even broken dreams, seem to be not so bad. Because there's always a new dream or something else that matters more."she said this softly, but with a convection that made his hearts feel at ease.

The Doctor stared at her, and he saw something that he couldn't explain in her froward gaze. Strength maybe? Compassion? Acceptance? He wasn't sure. But to him it seemed almost like an invitation. And he took it because she had shared her pain. Her mistakes with him. It may have seemed small in comparison to his own, but the Doctor could appreciate the gesture.

"It was called Gallifrey."he said softly.

She furrowed her brows, and he smiled.

"My home planet. Gallifrey. The Shinning World of the Seven systems. The sky's a burnt orange, with the Citadel enclosed in a mighty glass dome, shining under the twin suns. Beyond that, the mountains go on forever. Slopes of deep red grass, capped with snow, year round."

Her eyes widen, and she didn't say a word, only nodded her head for him to continue. The Doctor felt a pain, his hearts thundering as he crawled back under the Console.

"The second sun would rise in the south, and the mountains would shine. The leaves on the trees were silver, and when they caught the light every morning, it looked like a forest on fire. When the autumn came, the breeze would blow through the branches like a song."

He paused, connecting a broken wire with his sonic.

"I still remember the smell. It was rich. Always like it had just rained, despite the fact that it hardly ever rained unless it was needed for crops. Petrichor, but almost like it was stronger than that. Heady. When I was a boy I would sit in the sliver trees and take it all in, the smell, and the song of the forest. I'd escape away from my instructors from the Academy, and I watched the trees set ablaze."

The Doctor stopped. He heard her sniff, and looked up sharply, craning his next. In her gaze, there was no pity. No, he saw empathy. Her eyes were steady, even on the brink of tears. Strong, and before he seemed to think he said;

"But that's gone. I made it happen. A section of the Universe or everything. I made the choice. I took the Moment and locked it all away, left it for dust and rocks. I couldn't save anything. Not a single planet in there, not even my own. I thought for sure I wouldn't make it either. A friend of mine had other ideas. Once she heard of what I was doing she reprogrammed the TARDIS and I woke up here on Earth, April 27th, 1986."

He could still remember. Romana, smiling. Her eyes steady even as they filled with tears and she told him about the Emergancy Program Bad Wolf to save him. He didn't remember most of the message. He had been to busy staring at her in disbelief. The program had erased when he had to rehear the message... But he did remember the last bit.

"Keep moving. Don't stop. All across Space and Time, like you've always wanted. Like you're best at. Know that I do not blame you. In fact, I commend you for saving everything else. Especially when no one else would dare to. Live on, Theta Sigma, old friend."

He shook his head, pushing off the memories. He had said to much. So he didn't say another word. Rose, seemingly sensing his silence as a dismissal, hopped off the jump seat. Her bare feet did not make a sound on the metal, though the small drops of water coming off her still wet clothes did. She gathered up the towels, Porrco trailing behind her. He heard the drops of water coming closer and closer. He came face to face to her, her expression no longer teary, but thoughtful. Lightly, almost as if she was afraid to do it, Rose kissed him on the cheek. Against his cheek, she breathed, and it did strange things to his hearts as she whispered;

"Thank you for sharing, man of Gallifrey."

With that, she stood up, crawled out from the Console and walked away. The sound of hooves and water drops following her.


AN: I do not own Doctor Who, nor its characters. It all belongs to its broadcasting and publishing company, and the faces belong to those actors and actresses that give said characters life. I only own certain ideas, and the plot of this story(sort of, since this was inspired by other stories).

I have to say, this story has really captured my attention lately. Or at least, it Doctor Who aspect has, and I've been writing nonstop since the next chapter!

Anyway, I hope you liked this bit about Rose and the Doctor sharing a bit about themselves. Like so many of you have pointed out, since Rose is so much more attuned to the Doctor, she knows how to respond to him in a way that makes it easier on both ends. This entitles a good amount of more trust from the Doctor at this point in time. Still, being the Doctor he will try to back pedal and be wary from her for a while, because that man, bless him, is a bit thick when it comes to responding emotionally to something. But Rose of course, being Rose, will snap him right out of it!

I'd also like to justify the amount of time that has passed. Really, even though the Rose has stated that she spent two years with the Doctor, even within my own story, I liked to say that she probably doesn't really know how much time she spent with him. She most likely was going with the linear time of her Mom and Mickey, and didn't keep a steady track of it herself because, duh, on a time machine. No real point. With that assumption, I guessed she spent a lot longer with him and will explore the 'Bits in between' with gusto! So yes, between the actual cannon episodes there will be a couple of those like this one and the previous chapter, Just As it Should Be.

Thank you so much for all of you that have followed(348 of you!), Favorited(188!), and reviewed. I didn't expect such a good reaction, and I'm happy at the positive response, especially considering my difficulty with grammar and my lack of updating in a timely manner. I hope you continue to like the story, and I hoped you liked this chapter! Any questions, please feel free to review and or PM me!