Chapter Five: Getting Back to Normal.
Series: Three.
Episode: Extras: Post - Smith and Jones.
Rose returned to the console room after showing Martha to the bedroom the TARDIS had prepared for her.
The Doctor had been eager to get to their next adventure but Rose had stepped in to remind him that the humans needed to sleep, especially after such a long day. Martha had shot Rose a grateful look and Rose felt the last traces of tension leave her, she may not have known Martha in the original timeline, but perhaps this time around they could be friends. They were going to be living together after all.
The Doctor was aimlessly fiddling with the controls upon her return. Rose stood in the doorway for a moment, simply observing.
It was their first adventure since saying goodbye to Donna - their first voluntary adventure since Rose had said goodbye to her mother - and it'd been interesting, to say the least. She'd largely been trying to ignore the significance of it all throughout the day. The first Christmas without her mother and she didn't even get to celebrate it. They'd spent the day chasing after Donna, trying to understand how it came to be that she'd ended up in the TARDIS in the first place and then she'd ended up unconscious for the rest of it. In a way, she was glad that she hadn't had the time to actually acknowledge the fact.
The Doctor spotted her in the doorway, his voice pulling her from her thoughts, as she registered his words.
"Martha find a room all right?"
"Yep, she's all tucked in ready for tomorrow's trip." The Doctor nodded in acknowledgement, but his focus remained on the controls in front of him. "I forgot to ask, what's with the new suit?"
Although he'd changed back into the brown suit before they'd picked Martha up, she still couldn't help but wonder. He hadn't worn any other suit but the brown since he'd first chosen it after regenerating. With the exception for the odd occasion when he pulled the black tuxedo out.
The Doctor's gaze flickered up to hers at the question, but it fell as he thought of how best to respond.
"Uh, blue was the colour of-" He reached across the console to flick a group of switches, effectively putting his back to Rose as he spoke. "it was the uh colour of mourning on Gallifrey. In respect to your mum, I guess." He shrugged, aiming for nonchalance.
Rose smiled at his back. She knew mum and the Doctor hadn't gotten along when they'd first met but things had been different since the incident with the Slitheen in downing street and especially in this regeneration. He'd become one of the Tylers whether he liked it or not. She just knew his last self would have bristled at the sight of how domestic this Doctor could be sometimes.
But she also knew that her war-battered Doctor in leather had craved the kind of acceptance that only came with being family. He'd lost everything. And yet sometimes she found herself hoping she had helped ease some of the suffering in his hearts. She was not naive enough to think she could save him, she was just a girl off of the Estates after all. But Rose hoped she'd proved by now that she was always going to be there for him, whether he believed he deserved it or not.
While she'd only picked up bits and pieces about the Doctor's home planet and it's cultures in the time she'd been travelling with him, she knew what it had come to mean to him. So it warmed her heart to know he'd chosen to share this part of his world with her. But Rose also knew this to be the Doctor's own way of coping with his loss. His planet's culture and rituals survived solely through him and she was not about to let him feel insecure about sharing that part of himself in his own home.
She joined him at the console. Looping her arm through his, she rested her head against his arm.
"Thank you." Her tone hinting at all the things she wasn't saying. "I loved the suit by the way but did you really have to chuck your shoes away?" She added steering the conversation away from the more emotional topic.
He rubbed the back of his neck at her teasing.
"Probably not, was a bit busy. Though I should probably find some more if I'm going to wear the blue one more often."
He looked down at her thoughtfully for a second, Rose peered back up at him, letting his train of thought run its course.
"Shouldn't you be getting some rest too? Been a busy day after all."
"Nah, couldn't sleep if I wanted to. Been stuck in bed for what feels like months now and I've missed this, still running on adrenaline it feels like."
"Well, I suppose we could…" He trailed off as a grin grew on Rose's lips, she knew what that look meant. "Always go on a quick trip while Martha's still sleeping."
"If you think you can land us without waking her up." Her words a challenge as she grinned up at him, tongue between teeth.
A challenge the Doctor couldn't help but rise to.
"Ten quid says I can."
"You still owe me from Queen Vic so we'd be even if you can manage it."
"You're on, Rose Tyler."
Rose took a step back grabbing hold of the railing as the Doctor began his dance around the console. She laughed as the TARDIS threw him back onto the grating, he gave her a half-hearted glare before continuing to throw levers and press buttons and switches. They landed with a fairly gentle thud considering how badly they'd been thrown about on previous trips.
The Doctor dashed for the door, moving before the TARDIS had even finished settling, grabbing his coat as he went. Rose ran after him without missing a beat grabbing the new blue leather jacket the TARDIS had left her. She shot a quick thanks towards the ceiling before shutting the doors behind her.
She was still pulling her jacket on as she gazed at the sight before her. The soil was an icy blue colour, from which several of the domed huts at the bottom of the hill they'd landed on seemed to have been built of, they probably blended right in with their surroundings from a distance. Rows of larger buildings made of glistening white bricks stood behind the blue huts, each seemed to be displaying different types of items in their windows. Shops, Rose reasoned. There was little in the way of vegetation in the particular area they'd landed in.
"Where are we?"
"The planet Krevaar. Previously a favourite tourist spot of the inhabitants of Raxacoricofallapatorius. It was best known for its vast markets and mountains, it's garnered a rather unsavoury reputation due to the Slitheen family doing business here illegally. Making it the perfect place to come for a quiet day of shopping, unlikely to run into any tourists here."
Rose listened to the Doctor's lecture on the planet with her usual smile and enthusiasm.
"We've come to get you new shoes, haven't we?"
"Yes." Rose laughed at his admission. "But there's plenty to do here and the locals are rather friendly, we shouldn't run into any bother."
"Friendly like the polyamourous Javaats, who will marry anyone who looks at them. Or friendly like an Ood?" She questioned.
"Well not quite like either of those. But! Point is we shouldn't be at risk of running for our lives. Now come on let's have a look around."
The Doctor grabbed her hand and they ran towards the little shops, carefully zig-zagging out of the way of locals in a manoeuvre that only years of practice could perfect.
The Doctor managed to find some new red daps that were surprisingly a perfect match to the ones he'd lost on the moon before disappearing into a shop filled with mechanical parts with almost childlike glee. Rose picked out some new exotic teas, some heels that were apparently adapted for running, a basket of fuzzy purple kiwi-like fruits that she'd tried once before with the credit stick the Doctor had procured.
She always enjoyed little markets and shopping strips such as this, it was the perfect place to observe the culture of the locals without getting too many suspicious glares, looking for all the world as if she was simply browsing the wares displayed before her.
Though she and the Doctor often ended up separating for these trips, their differing interests drawing them to different shops. And Rose had learnt early on that it was best to leave the Doctor to his scavenging if she wanted to avoid a lecture on each of the individual parts he'd found. Because while she loved the sound of the Doctor's voice and the enthusiasm with which he delivered each fact, she'd never had much of a mind for the more technical side of things that came with the travelling.
She was wandering through the aisles of shops as she wondered which to enter next when a group of small children ran up to her to convince her to join their game having seen that she'd finished with her purchasing. And while she didn't often find herself in situations such as this, it did happen. Especially on planets where her blonde hair was unusual and exotic.
And it was this particular thought that had her spotting the differences between herself and the locals surrounding her. Because the Doctor had been right, while tourism had clearly once been a staple for this town once, it was pretty lacking at the moment. Rose only having spotted three other individuals that didn't quite fit in just as herself of the Doctor.
The adult locals she'd seen were humanoid and lilac in colour with big dark glittering almost bug-like eyes, thin stripes fanning out from around their eyes in a slightly warmer purple and with eight short fingers on each hand. While the children before her were still a light cornflower blue with the older among them being a shade less blue and a tad more purple.
When she'd agreed to their children's request, they'd dragged her towards a small field past the white shops and behind the blue domes with tall grass that was almost a perfect match to the children's blue skin. They made her count as they hid in the tall grass. Rose had always found it fascinating which games seemed to be universal as well as the more bizarre ones she'd never encountered before.
So there she stood, back to the towering blue grass, counting to herself. Before she remembered the instructions she been left with by one of the older children. It seemed she'd found herself playing a game of hide and seek in which the children had the advantage of near-perfect camouflage.
And that was how the Doctor found her once he'd reemerged with far more parts than he needed quite some time later. Chasing small giggling children through the grass as they attempted to evade her capture. When one of the children that had been hiding up a twisted tree jumped down onto her back causing her to trip and soon the rest of the children dog-piled on top with a victorious cheer while Rose giggled from beneath them.
"Sorry guys but I need to take this one back home." The Doctor said as he stepped through the long grass to give Rose a hand up.
A series of groans punctuated the air at that.
"But we defeated the mighty beast." One of the youngest clamoured.
"Does she have to go? No one else will play with us; they're too busy with the feast."
"And what feast is that then?" The Doctor asked as Rose dusted herself off.
"The feast of Solude. To celebrate the last days of summer before we go underground."
Realisation dawned upon the Doctor and Rose realised that this was one cultural tradition that had completely slipped his mind. It was bound to happen every now and again, Timelord brain or not, he couldn't remember everything no matter how he boasted the opposite. It happened.
The Doctor chanced a glance down at Rose, suddenly unsure if they should leave but also not quite willing to leave.
"We were just going to do a bit of shopping but I suppose…" He rubbed the back of his neck, clearly having come to a decision as his curiosity got the better of him. "If it's okay with Rose?"
Rose looked down at the eager and pleading faces of the children. It would be just too easy to agree, but if this was a tradition on their planet, outsiders might not be welcome. It had gotten them into a spot of bother several times before after all.
"We'd love to." The children started to jump about excitedly. "But we should check to see if we're actually invited first." She said pointedly to the Doctor.
"Right you are, Rose."
x
And that was how they ended up getting chased off of Krevaar and banned for the foreseeable future.
The Doctor and Rose leant back against the closed TARDIS doors panting before they slowly dissolved into laughter. Hadn't the Doctor said they wouldn't end up running into any trouble and yet here they were. How very typical of them.
The Doctor pushed off from the doors as he began the dematerialisation sequence. Rose watched him with a smile, not moving away from the doors as the TARDIS jolted twice before stabilising in the vortex.
She'd let the Doctor take the lead with the locals and he had somehow ended up invoking their wrath. It was probably his passing remark about the Slitheen though, that really set the locals off.
"There we go. Safe and sound inside the vortex, far from any angry locals."
"I'm starting to think that's it the calm that's the bits in between rather than the trouble. You seem to have a penchant for finding trouble anywhere." Rose said with a tongue touched grin as she pushed off from the doors up the grating.
The Doctor scoffed.
"You're one to talk Miss Jeopardy Friendly." He said pointing an accusing finger at her.
"I guess we're just as bad as each other then."
"So it would seem." His smile faded, replaced by a far more serious expression as he regarded her. "Are you alright? After everything at the hospital and bringing along a new companion you must be exhausted."
"I'm okay, Doctor. Though I should probably get some rest before we take Martha out tomorrow." She started walking backwards towards the corridor off of the console room. "Any idea where we're going?"
"Ah ah. It's going to be a surprise."
"Oh come on. Not even a hint?" She grinned, daring him to change his mind.
"Nope nope nope. Go on off to bed with you Rose Tyler."
"Okay okay." She laughed. "But at least answer this, past or future? I really don't want another incident like Queen Victoria."
"Hmm, let's see. Your first trip was future, let's try past for Martha."
"Think you can actually get us there?" She teased frozen in the doorway.
"Oi. That's enough out of you, you're clearly sleep-deprived off you go."
Rose laughed before spinning around and heading down the corridor, her purchases bumping against her leg as she did so.
"Night, Doctor." She called back to him.
"There is no such thing as night on the TARDIS, Rose Tyler."
"Goodnight, Doctor." She repeated with a chuckle.
"Goodnight, Rose." He said softly into the now empty console room.
A/N: Just a short sort of fluffy interlude before the next episode. Would you like more chapters like this or nah?
Anyway, let me know your thoughts in the comments :)
Replies:
Dreamcatcher56: Thank you for your input on the Martha crush situation, I agree I think that's a very good point and think I'm mainly decided on a how I want to approach that so thank you
Ronald Ocean: I agree with you on the power thing it won't be making an appearance every chapter the situations in which it does appear is for a very specific reason that I hope will become clear. She won't always lose presence as much as she did the last episode, I did it that way for a number of reasons 1) being that I do very much think that if Rose hadn't been lost the Doctor likely wouldn't have invited Martha along 2) this is technically the first adventure they agree to take since losing her mother and even then it had been a while since the Donna incident. I imagine had she been more in her right mind she wouldn't have been so welcoming to the idea of bringing along a new companion when she was still healing which brings me to 3) Rose hasn't had the best experience with bringing along another companion most recently Mickey who she lost to the parallel world Jack left (she doesn't know that he died) and Adam who nearly got them killed. Had she not had that experience with fixed points and her father she probably wouldn't have been quite so adamant about Martha coming because of all of that. Her powers were a nice way to introduce Martha and the situation I mentioned. Sorry this got so long I'm just so excited about this story and have put a lot of thought into it, its my baby. But you're completely right
