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Chapter 17 - Afternoon Bliss

Rose and the Doctor had gotten up, had tea, and then a shower. Rose had kept her promise to continue to wash his hair even though his hand was completely fine. He was dressed in his jeans, a black t-shirt, and light purple oxford that he had taken delight in putting on himself. He made a huge production of it as he buttoned each button on his own.

Rose had put on a cute little purple sundress without sleeves. The skirt came just below her knees. Even though she had just twisted her hair up on the back of her head, it looked like she had taken some time to style it. The Doctor had meant it when he told her that she looked beautiful that morning.

The Doctor had another cup of tea in his hand, and he was looking over all of his notes he had written out last night. They were still scattered all over the dining table on the deck. He sat down and made a few more additions. He was deep in thought when she walked in and saw him drawing the circles.

"I'll never understand how anyone can make such perfect circles like that."

"It's Gallifreyan. The language of the Time Lords. I'm trying to work something out."

She took some of the pages and looked at it. "Any use in asking what you are trying to work out?"

He took a sip of his tea and replied, "Nope!"

"Has something to do with your secret experiment in the box?"

"Nope!" he replied popping the 'p.' "There's a storm approaching. I can feel it." He stopped to look up at her. "Remember, Storm is my middle name!" He smiled like a loon.

"So, this is about meteorology?"

"Nope!" he replied popping the 'p'. "New project. Something I should have started working on about a week ago, honestly." He kissed her and said, "I've been a bit distracted."

Happy to be his distraction, she smiled at him. "I got you something."

"Me?" he sat down his tea and his work and gave her his complete attention.

"But, not if you are working on something-" she told him.

"No." he shook his head. "Good stopping place. Just reading over them. What is it?"

She noted that he was either tired from last night, or really had more on his mind than he was letting on. Knowing the Doctor, it was probably both.

She took his hand and sat him down on the couch in the sitting room. She picked up her tablet.

"Okay, don't be mad. But I did some digging about something."

He looked up at her without saying anything. Rose knew he had to be tired, he would have normally had a smart comment about that. He lay his arm on the back of the couch to get more comfortable.

"Time Lords never existed in this dimension. Therefore your friend, Sarah Jane Smith, never met you here. I looked her up and wow. She's amazing."

"No surprise there. She was amazing in the Prime Dimension, too." he told her.

Rose noticed the sadness, but extreme interest in her voice.

Rose read from her tablet, "Doctor Sarah Jane Smith began her career in intelligence for the People's Republic of Great Britain's MI-6. She later became a noted criminal analyst assisting Great Britain, and other members of the United Nations. After she met her husband, a respective investment broker, she moved to the United States and accepted a teaching position at the US Naval Academy. After she became a US citizen she was recommended to the CIA, spending a short period there writing a position paper as well as developing a counter-espionage mechanism. After returning to the academy, she began writing history books that she is probably the most known from. Smith's History books take a detailed look at all points of Earth's history and quickly became the most trusted resource in the subject."

She handed him the tablet. "There. I bought you all of the books. You can learn all about this version of history, from an old friend of yours'."

He put on his glasses to look at the screen. "Wow. She really did all of this?"

"And a 'Doctor' no less." Rose pointed out.

The Doctor smiled. "Doctor Sarah Jane Smith." he tasted in his mouth.

She could tell he was proud of her. "And she got married? Became an American?"

Then he laughed out loud. Rose showed him where to find all of the books. She clicked here and there on the tablet.

"Geez! She wrote a lot of books! It will take me a while to read all of these." he clicked through them. "Wow, these are really good, too." He was beaming as he took off his glasses. "My Sarah Jane. A spy. A teacher. A wife. A writer!"

Rose smiled at him.

"Oh, thank you, Rose. This was very thoughtful. I had thought about picking up a book here to see how different it is. I would have never dreamed I could have found something like this! Thank you so much!" He leaned in and kissed Rose. "This is great. I can't wait to read them."

"Finally, a book series you've never read!" Rose laughed. "Only had to go to another dimension to find that!"

"And written by Sarah Jane." he smiled at the tablet. "And this bio is not a huge surprise. The first time I met her, she had managed to infiltrate a top-secret research facility. Then, she snuck onto my TARDIS! You are bad at wandering off, she was bad about wandering into trouble. That's the reason I gave her K-9. Well... that, and I knew someone needed to look after her."

"You couldn't?" Rose asked him.

"Nah," he told her. "I got called back to Gallifrey because of the Time War. I couldn't take her with me. Wow. This is something."

He sat the tablet down on the table and placed his hands on both sides of Rose's face. "Thank you, Rose." He leaned in to give her a proper snog.

The Doctor's phone rang. It was Tony. Rose picked up the phone and accepted the call.

She put a stern look on her face as the video of Tony loaded. "What are you calling the Doctor for, young man?"

"Cause I want to talk to him, silly. Have you ate all of that candy, yet? "

Rose turned the phone so Tony could see and the Doctor next to her. As tired and worn down as the Doctor had seemed a moment ago, melted completely away when he talked to Tony on the phone. "Hey, Comrade! Are you ready for your next word?"

"Not yet. I made you some words, Doctor." Tony told him as he found a piece of paper.

"Made me some words? Let me see!"

Tony spun the phone's camera around and showed the Doctor and Rose his words. He had probably 40 words he had written such as 'cat', bat', 'mat', 'at', 'fat', etc. He had also written out the word, 'Rose'.

He explained. "I think Rose has an 'e' at the end and that's what makes the 'o' say 'o' instead of 'uh'. Is that right?"

The Doctor beamed. "That's right! Wow! You are so smart! I can't believe you figured that out. English is a hard language to learn. Believe me, I know a few."

Rose smiled at him. "Yeah, just a few."

"Hang on a bit, Tony. I'll be right back. Just a second." He patted Rose on the leg as he stood up off the couch and went into the bedroom.

"How's Zeus?" she asked her brother.

"He's good. I gave him a teddy bear, and he must not have liked it because he tore it up."

Rose laughed. "I suppose he didn't!"

The Doctor returned with the books he had purchased the night before on the ship.

He held up one of the books so that Tony could see it. "I was going to wait on this, but I think you can probably do it now. Look around your room and find this book. I know you have it, I remember seeing it."

Tony looked at the screen and then looked all over his room for the book the Doctor was holding up for him. He returned and showed him proudly that he had found it. He was holding up Dr. Seuss's 'The Cat in the Hat.'

"Okay, Tony. I want you to open it and read the first page to me."

The little boy opened it up and read it all aloud. He stumbled on a few words but did amazing.

Rose was so proud of her brother and his teacher. She hugged the Doctor's arm tighter hearing every correct word. The Doctor just beamed.

Once the little boy finished, the Doctor exclaimed, "How about that, Rose Tyler! Our brother can read!"

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Jake was walking down the hall of Torchwood Tower when an agent caught him.

"Sir, another one. Just got it in. Shall I inform the Director?" the agent told him as he handed him a file.

Jake opened it to look. He shook his head. "Nah, it's just another threat. I'll handle it. Any way to tell where it came from?"

"No, sir. The transmission was scrambled, again." the agent informed him.

Jake vibrated his lips in frustration. "Mickey Smith, I should sure use your help right about now."

He smacked the agent in the chest with the files. "Thanks."

He got on the lift and nervously tapped the files on in his hand. Once the lift dinged, he walked down the hall to meet the man he had came to see.

"Williams!" he called. An older man in a flight suit turned around. A smile broke across his face.

"Simmons, sir! he greeted him as he shook his hand. "What can I do for you?"

Jake pulled in close so that they couldn't be overheard. "I need a ride. Tonight. Middle of the Atlantic. Can you do that?"

Williams asked, "Director Tyler know about this?"

"No, and he doesn't need to. I need to get to a ship. Can you do it?"

Williams thought for a moment. "Be back at 16:00, and we'll depart."

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The Doctor was back at the dining table, looking over his notes. Making more additions. He wore his glasses and was rubbing his hand through his hair as he thought. His hair was sticking up all over the place. Rose had no idea what he was doing, but he appeared to be making progress with all of his little circles.

He jumped up and went into the sitting room to look for more paper. He saw her and if he was continuing a conversation he said, "Rose. Where did you tell everyone you were from? When you first came here? Like, what city did you grow up in?"

That's not what she expected. She was surprised and it took a minute for her to reply. He found some paper and walked over to her. She was still thinking.

"It was wild. Some….unbelievable stuff about how I had been born and left behind for someone else to raise in Norway."

"Norway?"

"Yeah," She picked some lint off of her blouse. "The press went easy on us then. Nothing like it is now."

"Really?"

"Well, everyone was recovering from the Cyberman occupation and rebuilding from that-"

He stood there in front of her, thinking. "Right..." he said slowly.

Rose was completely confused. "What are you on about?" she asked him.

He seemed to snap out of it. "Nothing. Don't worry about it. Hey, what are we doing today? I was thinking about having lunch with our bodyguards so I can at least learn their names. Would that be alright?"

"How about tea instead?" she asked him. "I was thinking about going to the pool for a little bit. Harriet told me she has access to this private pool that we can use if we want. I thought we could go for a swim."

His eyes lit up. "A swim! That sounds good. A good swim sometimes helps clear my head. Good idea, Rose!"

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The pool was just what they needed. Rose saw the Doctor finally relax for the first time that morning when he swam. He rolled over on his back and floated for a bit.

It was a lovely small pool that had been positioned on the ship so it caught sun from the top, but the walls around it made it private. It was luxurious. A place you would expect a queen or a president to come relax. Unless you stood in the middle and shouted, no one outside would ever know anyone was in there. The room was bright from the sun reflecting off of the crystal clear water. Only, four chairs were on the small deck. Towels hand on the back of each chair. Bottled water sat in an iced bucket on the deck. A fountain provided a wonderful white noise that seemed to cover up any noise on the outside of the walls. Their bodyguards enjoyed the air-conditioned lobby just outside the doors.

"Ahhh... now this is nice," he said to himself. After a few moments, he rolled back under the water and swam around some more.

Rose got into the water and sat on the stairs. She enjoyed just watching him swim around. He was a vision. Finally, back to her happy Doctor. She was not sure if his dreams were still bothering him, or what had been going on with him today. She knew it was no use to ask him because he would never tell her.

He noticed her watching him and swam over to the steps. He hugged her around her waist and pulled her out into the water. "Swimming works so much better when you get a bit deeper in the water, Rose." he teased her. She put her arms around his neck and let him carry her out deeper. She wrapped her legs around his back, as he held her bum.

"Did you ever swim on the TARDIS?"

"I started to several times, but just never got around to it. There was one night I thought about going swimming, but Jack was already there. He told me he was nude, so I decided I'd let him and himself have the entire pool." She laughed at the memory.

The Doctor laughed. "Oh, skinny dipping in the TARDIS. That does bring back some memories." Seeing the look on Rose's face, "But, I'll tell you about that another day." He said quietly as he kissed her.

She laughed under his lips. "Oh, I look forward to that story." she assured him.

He rested his head on hers, as he continued to hold her in the water.

"What's on your mind? You seem tired today, or something." Rose inquired.

"I'm alright." he told her and seeing her face, immediately wished he had used another word. He took his finger and pointed it at her forcefully and said, "No, really I am alright. Not what you think I'm saying."

"Okay, " she smiled and kissed him on the forehead.

A few moments pasted.

"Rose, if I had a TARDIS and we could leave here? Would you go with me?" he asked her quietly.

"You know I would. I plan to stay with you forever. But, you don't have a TARDIS." she reminded him.

He rose his eyebrows and looked down at the water. "Yeah, but what if I did? Where would you want to go?"

She kissed his lips as he bobbed them up and down in the water. "I don't know. Anyplace, as long as we were together."

"Would you be afraid I would leave you?" he asked her as he kissed her lips again.

"I would worry about it, probably. Yeah. Even though I know you have told me a million times you wouldn't. I suppose I probably always worry a bit about it." she told him.

"If I did have one, I wouldn't leave you, Rose. I promise you, that I'll never leave you again." he kissed her lips again.

"I bet this is driving you mad. Being on the same ship for days headed someplace. In the TARDIS, we would have already been there and back."

He smiled at her. "Yeah, we totally would."

"Harriet is leaving tomorrow. We can leave early, and just catch a ride with her. Would you like me to ask?"

His eyes lit up. "Oh, Rose would you? That would be great!"

"Sure! I'm sure she'll be alright with it. Like, Rose alright, not Doctor's alright." She teased him.

He rolled his eyes at her, "I knew that was going to become a thing." He kissed her lips, again.

"We need to practice something." he told her. "This is a great opportunity to do this."

He lay his forehead back on hers. She felt him brush the edge of her consciousness. She him right in.

'We need to practice your shielding. You have strong shields, but there is no way you can ever make them too strong. There are creatures out there who will rip apart your mind if you are unable to protect it. So, I want you to practice. I won't drop you in the water or nothing mean like that. But, you have to learn to keep your shields high, even when you are distracted. If someone is trying to mentally attack you, they will not warn you. They will just find a hole in your shields and come in. Got it?'

'Got it.'

'Okay, make your shields high as you can and I'll try to come in. I won't hurt you. You can trust me.'

She did as he asked. Her shields were high as she could make them. She could feel him try to come in one side of her mind, then into another. It was as if she was in a box and he was knocking on many different spots, on different sides.

He leaned in and kissed her, and she kissed back. She had expected that distraction. She was proud that she was able to keep her shields high. He was a helluva kisser and just his touch made her tingle all over her body. She kept her shields high.

"Good." he whispered to her, and he kissed her again. She continued to keep her shields strong as he tried to get into her mind.

He kissed her cheek and sucked her earlobe. "Good," he whispered to her, again.

He worked his way back to her lips again. As he was kissing her, he moved one of his hands from her bum. He slipped two of his fingers inside of her swimsuit, and stroked the outside of her opening.

She stopped kissing him and looked at him. "That's a dirty trick old man." she scolded him.

He laughed at her. "But, you kept your shields up!" he said, proud of her.

She rolled her eyes at him as he kissed her again.

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The Doctor had put all of his notes into the 'Cat in the Hat' book and lay it on top of Rose's tablet. They were back in the suite, and Rose had arranged them to leave tomorrow on the helicopter that would take Harriet onto the United States. The Doctor had loved his time on the cruise ship, but was anxious to get someplace else.

Rose had sent their laundry out to be done that morning, so she was able to repack everything in their 'bigger on the inside' suitcase when they returned from swimming.

"Can I help you with anything?" the Doctor asked her as he walked into the bedroom. The hotel staff had been in to tidy.

"No, I think I've got everything." her voice called from the bathroom to him.

He lay across the bed, rolled on his back and starred at the ceiling. He was consumed in his thoughts again when Rose walked through the bedroom.

"I made you some tea," he told her. "It's over there on the table." he pointed at table next to the bedroom door.

"Oh, thanks!" she said brightly and walked over to take a sip. She was still gathering stuff for the suitcase.

"Hey, Rose. Where is your phone? Can I see it a minute?" he asked her.

"Sure." she handed it to him.

He lay in the bed looking at some stuff on her phone. He clicked this app and that and looked up and down. Seeming satisfied, he opened the camera and took a picture of himself smiling for her to find later.

Rose lay down in the bed next to him. "Tired, sweetheart?" she asked him.

He loved that she had called him that. It made him tingle all over. He smiled at her. "I think I might be. It feels good to just lay here." He started to rub his face. She lay down on his chest. He scratched her back with a feather light touch. Within a few minutes, his hand had stopped as he had fell asleep. She lay there holding him while he slept. She was worried he would slip back into his nightmares from the night before if she got up. Before she knew it, she was asleep, too.

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The Doctor's phone rang in the other room. Rose woke up and heard it. The Doctor was still asleep. Not wanting it to disturb him, she jumped up and ran to answer it. It was Tony. She answered it and turned it down really low.

"Hey Tony." Rose told him quietly. "The Doctor is sleeping, so we'll have to be quiet. What's up?"

"Nothing much. I just took a nap, too. I wanted to tell him that I have read five books today."

"Five books! Blimey! That's great!"

"Yeah, Zeus likes to be read to. I'm going to read some more, then go swimming. Can you tell him that for me? I'm sure he'll be proud of me."

"Oh, I know he will be. I know I am. Great job!"

"Okay, bye!"

It was already 3:30 pm. Rose had asked the body guards to come for tea at 5:00 pm. She was going to have to go wake up her sleeping Time Lord. She went ahead and called room service for tea to be delivered at 5:00.

Rose walked back into the bedroom. The Doctor looked so peaceful propped up on all of the pillows on the bed. He had his hand in his hair, and his arm was propped on the pillows. He looked like he had fell asleep thinking really hard about something.

Rose climbed back into the bed and kissed him on the forehead. He continued to sleep. Rose considered. He really had the time to sleep a bit longer if he needed to. She gently climbed out of bed and picked up her phone to check her messages. The first thing she noticed was that the Doctor had taken a silly picture of himself and made it her wallpaper. It made her chuckle. That loon.

The Doctor took a deep breath and pulled his hair. He didn't open his eyes, but asked her, "What did Tony want?"

"He said you would be proud of him. He's now read five books."

A smile lit up the Doctor's face. "I am proud of him, that's great!" he said, still without opening his eyes.

"We have tea in an hour and a half. When do I need to wake you up?"

He thought for a minute, "I'll get up in 49 minutes and 32 seconds." he said, still without opening his eyes.

"Okay, rest then. My Doctor." she told him as she leaned down to kiss him again. She was almost to his lips when his arms came up, grabbed her and pulled her into the bed with him. He flipped on top of her and kissed her.

Rose screamed. "You nutter! I thought you were sleeping!"

"I'm already sleeping a third of my life away, I really probably don't need to start sleeping during the day, too." he told her. He brought his hand up to rub his face. He was sitting on his knees, straddling her at the waist. Realizing he had her in the 'questioning position' from their game the day before, he decided to take advantage of it.

"Ah ha! I can ask you a question!" he considered for a moment. "Damn, and I don't have anything good to ask you right now."

"Haven't gotten woken up completely yet, huh?" Rose laughed at him.

He rubbed his face again. "I guess so. Blimey, I hate this body. It's terrible. It needs too much rest. I have things to do!"

Rose took advantage of his distraction and knocked him over in the bed. A quick scramble positioned her sitting on top of him in the 'questioning position.'

"Damn woman. Are you like a ninja or something?" he complained as he discovered he was now pinned underneath her.

"Torchwood self defense training." she explained quickly.

"Well, that makes sense." he said under his breath. He was able to wrap his arms around her legs and rest his hands on her knees under her skirt.

"What's up with you and Tony?" she asked him.

He wasn't expecting that. "What do you mean?"

"You don't have to get him to like you, so I will. I already do. You don't have to go at that angle."

"Angle? No, Rose. You don't understand. It's nothing like that."

"Teaching him to read? Running to answer his calls whenever? I saw you send two of Pete's calls to voicemail yesterday."

"Yeah, but that was because I didn't want to talk to him." he chuckled.

She rolled her eyes at him, "I'm serious. What's going on with you and my brother?"

"Nothing. I just worry about him. He's a young boy. Alone in that big house with all of those adults. Being groomed to take over a vast empire of his Dad's. The kid will find in a few years that he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. And through no fault of his own, everyone will have higher expectations of him. His life will be full of hard decisions and tough choices. He needs someone he can talk to that's not his Mum or Dad. I'm not saying Pete or Jackie are doing anything wrong, in fact, I admire the relationship they have with him. But, it is a lonely way to grow up. And when you grow up lonely, it stays with you your entire life. I don't want that for him."

"Tough decisions? Do you know something you aren't telling me?" Rose asked him.

"I can't see the time lines the way I used to be able to. But, it's just common sense with the whole situation. You'll just have to trust me on this, Rose. I've seen it happen many times before."

"Wow. That's really sweet." she told him quietly. "I feel bad for accusing you of using him, now."

"Ah, don't." he told her. "You're the protective big sister. I wouldn't expect any less of you. I'm just happy you didn't punch me." he laughed.

Rose chuckled. "I suppose you won't forget that, huh?"

He rubbed her thighs as he spoke to her. "It's not the sort of thing I would forget. I love you, Rose. I wouldn't use Tony, or anyone else, to try to get closer to you. I want this to work with you and me."

She leaned down to kiss him. He cupped her face with his hands. His tongue asked to come dance with hers. She sucked his bottom lip. He stroked her face with his thumbs.

"I love you, Doctor." Rose whispered to him. "I really do."

He raised up in the bed put his arms around her. He smiled as he said, "My scary, pink and yellow ninja girl, was going to knock me out over her brother. That's kindof sexy, you know."

Rose rolled her eyes and laughed. "You daft alien."

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