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Chapter 24 - Physics

Rose woke up. The Doctor wasn't in the bed with her and the flat was very quiet.

Rose got up and put on her robe. The clock said it was 6:48 am. She walked down the hallway. She found him sitting on the sofa in the sitting room with his feet propped up on the coffee table. He had on his glasses and was reading something on the tablet. He had taken his jacket off and lay it on the chair on the other side of the room. He had kicked off his shoes and socks.

She watched him as he brought his tea glass up to his lips to blow the heat off of the liquid.

'What do you have in that tea, old man?' Rose teased him in his head.

He looked up and smiled as he saw her. "Hey! I didn't know you were awake!"

She smiled at him. "Get Jake sorted?"

He sighed. "Oh, that's a great story. I'll tell you a bit later. Let me make you some tea. Have a seat. The water is still warm."

He jumped up and ran over to the kitchen. He came back over to the sofa and handed her tea to her.

She smiled at him as he sat next to her. "Thank you. What are you out here doing?"

"Killing time, my dear! I've never done that before. It was a neat experience." he laughed.

Rose laughed at him and she drank her tea and curled her legs in behind her on the sofa.

He turned to look at her, resting his arm on the back of the sofa. "Gosh, woman. You take my breath away. Have I told you that?"

She smiled at him. "Boy, you are in a good mood today!"

He looked up and down at her body and rubbed his beard. "That robe. That's one of my favorites. I love it when you wear that. And lingerie. Or just a big smile. Any of that, I'm a happy man!"

Rose leaned in and kissed him. Her fingers held his necklace he wore all of the time for his football. "You make me happy, too."

He cleared his throat and rubbed his head as he picked up his tea and drank it.

"Did you sleep? I tried to not bother you. Thank you so much for putting that psychic paper in my wallet. That's the perfect place for that. I honestly never look in there."

"Seemed a logical place to me." Rose told him.

"You do such a great job taking care of me, Rose. I have idea what I would do without you."

She grinned at him, "Good thing you never have to be without me, then."

"You're really going to marry me?" he asked her.

"Yes! I really am!" she told him proudly.

He bit his tongue and smiled at her.

"I have our first wedding gift. And you will never guess who it is from."

Rose blew her tea. "Who?"

He sat down his tea and pointed to the box sitting on the coffee table. It was nearly as big as the box the TARDIS was growing in, but a square. It was brown with carving all over it.

Rose sat down her tea on the table. "What is it? It's a beautiful box."

He smiled, "I have no idea. I told Pete and Jake I wanted you to open it with me. They wanted me to open it at Torchwood because some 'out of towners' gave it to us this morning. They were lost and I gave them directions to where they wanted to go. The Captain ... ummm... wanted me to come with them."

Rose looked puzzled. "Why?"

"To be her mate." he explained as he rubbed his beard and smiled.

"What the hell kind of directions did you give this woman?" Rose asked smiling.

He laughed, "I knew you would ask me that!"

"Was she a member of a Royal family?" Rose teased.

"Okay, now wait. That bet is for the Royal family of Great Britain. Right? Or is that for anyone in any Royal family?"

Rose's eyes got huge. "Oh my God! I've never thought of -"

"Nevermind. I'm not going to tell you anyway. It doesn't matter. Forget I said anything!"

Rose shook her head in surprise. "Kind of hard to. Anyway. I'll get it out of you Old Man!"

"Old Man." he mocked her. "Well, Old Man, thanked the Captain, but told her that he was engaged to a beautiful, amazing woman. So, she gave us this as a wedding present. I have no idea what it is."

Rose sat up to look closer at the box. "Where were they from?"

"Alfecca Meridaians! From Cepheus. A small little place. They are very peaceful, very pink people. I'm thrilled to know that they are in this dimension. Their technology helps a lot of people in the future."

"So, do you think it's something they have made?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I don't think so. Normally, they don't give technology as gifts. It's usually something natural. They value simplicity over everything."

Rose looked up at him and he could see the excitement on her face. "Let's open it."

He smiled at her. "You open it sweetheart. I love watching your reaction."

"Are you certain? This is your gift, too." Rose asked him.

He smiled like a loon at her. "More than anything. I love to see you so excited."

Rose looked at the box. After a bit, the Doctor pointed at a piece of the writing. "Sorry, I forgot you can't read that. It says to press here."

Rose pressed where he had instructed her to do so, and the top slid back. They both stood up and looked over into the box.

The Doctor exclaimed. "Oh, no way! How cool is that?! I've always wanted one of these!"

Rose saw a white glow all inside of the box.

"What is it?" Rose asked him.

He reached in and pulled out what looked to be a huge diamond. It was nearly as big as his head.

"It's called a... umm... let me think how you would say that. Trouble Stone? No. Warning Rock? Anyway. You put this in your home in a common area. If you see blue, everything is alright with all of your family. Every is safe and happy. But if it's red, someone is in trouble. If it's yellow, you need to take caution, and so on. These colors are similar to Earth's warning systems."

Rose smiled. "That's amazing!"

"For it to work, you have to have every member of the family touch it and say their name. That way it can keep up with everyone. These are brilliant! A gift worthy for a Royal family it is! That's the only time I've ever seen one! "

Rose reached in the box and took out the stand for it. The Doctor looked around the room and walked over to fireplace. "What do you think. Put it here? Above the fireplace?"

Rose laughed, "I think that's a great place!" She put the stand there as he sat the precious stone in it.

He took her hand and lay it on the stone, "Say your name to it, Rose, and where you are from. That's important."

"Rose Tyler of Earth." Rose smiled.

He smiled at her. "The Doctor of Gallifrey."

He wrapped his arms around her waist as she giggled as she ran her hands through his hair. They watched as the stone turned blue.

She leaned in and kissed him. "I'm still reeling from last night. That was so much fun. Thank you."

He smiled, "I'm still reeling from something I've read this morning, while you were asleep."

She sighed and walked away from him. She sat back on the sofa, and tucked her legs behind her.

"What the hell is that about?" he laughed at her frustration.

She rubbed her face as she sat on the sofa, not looking at him. "I don't think I want to even talk about it."

"What? Are you mad at me?" he asked her.

"No. Not really. More mad at myself." Rose told him.

He looked surprised as he sat back down on the sofa and faced her. He chuckled, "Why? What have you done?"

She looked at him, "I let you trick me into letting you read that damn paper. I should have known what you were playing at. You played me!"

He smiled like a loon. "Oh, yes I did! You should be mad at me about that. Not yourself."

"Ugh." Rose complained.

Someone knocked at the door. He looked at her and continued laughing as he got up to answer it.

Shakes was there with two take-away containers. He leaned in and said quietly, "Two Full English Breakfasts from the Quauhtin for the Nehytas. We had a lovely time last night and wanted to try to repay your kindness."

The Doctor smiled. "Wow! Thank you! You didn't have to do that."

"It was our pleasure. I've spoken to the rest of the guard. We are all on high alert after your warning. All is well. We'll be ready to leave at 9:30." Shakes left.

The Doctor closed the door and walked back over to the sofa. "Wow! Shakes and the guys bought us breakfast!"

"That was very nice." Rose agreed as he handed her a container and sat down next to her.

The Doctor was eating, 'I have to go get Genie in a little while. Should I pop in and scare Jackie again?'

Rose laughed. 'No. Let me text her and you pop in the house, though. While you are there, we'll have John and Sam deliver those roses to her bedroom. You keep her distracted.'

'I told Pete about that this morning. He says we are crazy. But, he is all for it. She agreed to go to Greece with him. We have Tony and Zeus.'

Rose stopped eating and looked at him, "Really?"

He looked up at her and nodded. 'Surprised me, too.'

'When did you see Dad? I thought Jake called you?'

He stopped eating and gritted his teeth.

Rose noticed and said, "Uh-oh. What did you do that they had to call the Director in?"

He sat his container down and ran his hand through his hair. "Okay, Pete will tell you anyway. He was pissed at me. Properly pissed! He popped in my office and cussed me out!"

'My God! What did you do?'

"Phhhh... gave some aliens some directions. That's all. Barely anything."

She glared at him. 'Dad's cussing you out, I think it's probably not nothing.'

He rubbed his face with his hand. "Rose it's not a big deal. I knew what I was doing. I popped on their ship, read their star charts and gave them directions."

"What do you mean you popped on their ship? Using the watch?"

He looked down at his watch, "Yeah. Sure makes living without my TARDIS a bit more tolerable. I could probably work a time jump into this thing if I really thought about it-"

"Okay, stop. You are changing the subject. You popped onto an alien ship? Did you know the sort of ship it was?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"Did you know who was on it?"

He gritted his teeth. "No. But, it was a repeat of something I knew about that had already happened."

"In this dimension?"

"No."

"How bad did he cuss you out?"

"Bad."

"Good then I won't. I'm just bummed I decided to stay home and sleep."

He laughed, "That's what I told him you would say. After I told him to stop treating me like a child."

"Oh, I bet that went over well."

"Nah, we're good. I think men just need to shout at one another sometimes in order to keep a friendship strong. I hope that's the case anyway. And, I also found out that Jake had four Quauhtin's help drinking last night. That's the reason that tab was so damn high. So, I'm fine with that now."

"I didn't think they drank!"

"I didn't either. Well, except for Lewis. He has a problem like me, apparently."

"Admitting you have a problem, finally?" Rose smiled at him.

"Phhh... nah. Not really. Howie Shepherd has a problem!"

Rose continued to eat her breakfast. He looked back at her. "Mad at yourself, huh? Let's talk about that."

Rose was eating again, so she spoke in his head. 'Ugh. No.'

He smiled at her. "Your mouth is full, I can say what I need to say."

'You forget, I can argue in your head.'

"Rethinking this link, now." he joked.

"Alright, I'm sorry. I know you have to say something about it. Let me prepare myself." She sat down her container and fanned her face with her eyes closed.

He laughed at her. "You are so funny. I wonder what you think I'm going to say."

"Oh, I know what you are going to say. And there will be lots of smiling and complaining."

He shook his head and smiled. "No, my dear. Not at all."

She looked surprised.

He turned to face her on the couch. He propped his head up on his hand. "I read it."

"The entire thing? This morning? It's like - "

"67 pages! Yes. Paper my ass! It's a book. I never understood why they called it that. Einstein insisted on calling his a book, too. Granted his was only 46 pages."

"You can read that fast?"

"Yes. I read it several times this morning." He told her.

"And..." She covered her face.

"Are you hiding from my opinion?"

She nodded her head.

He laughed at her. "Oh, you make me laugh! You are hilarious! You have just no idea how brilliant you are!"

He leaned in and uncovered her face. He took both of her hands in his and looked her in the eyes. "I loved it. I can't think of anything bad to say about it."

"Really?" she asked quietly.

He leaned his head back on this fist. "I'll admit. I was really rather shocked. You have an understanding of physics that is mind blowing. The entire fourth dimension thing. I get that. I muck with that all the time. The fifth dimension has always been difficult for people to understand. It's just so... intangible."

Rose began. "See, that's where you are wrong. We exist in three dimensions. But, then there is the fourth, like you said, that we also exist in. Computers work in that dimension. So does thought. It's just something we can't see. The fifth is tiny. Only as big as an atom in a lot of cases. That's the reason that jumping between the dimensions is so difficult. The holes are just that small. But the skins between the dimensions are very porous, like a sponge. If you get a large enough concentration of atoms and holes from the walls together, you can break the wall from the Void inbetween and that's how you jump into another dimension."

He smiled at her.

"What?" she asked.

He just smiled and rubbed his head. "I do have questions though."

"Oh hell, here it comes."

"No, nothing bad. Just curious how much of this you understand." he smiled at her. "Why do you think the Fifth Dimension is so small?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. It's like it's...rolled up."

He looked shocked, "Rolled up?"

She sighed. "See, this is why I didn't want to talk to you about this. I know you know way more about this and you would be all superior with your explanations and treat me like an idiot."

He smiled and rubbed his beard. He was absolutely beaming with how proud he was of her. "No! You have no idea, woman. You are completely right! And no one, I mean no one knows that."

"What? That it's rolled up?" she asked him.

"Yes. Like a piece of paper. Really tiny. It looks like an atom because you can only see the sides. Wow. I can't believe you worked that out."

"But, if you look at it through the Void, you can see the line instead. Like the side of the paper that is rolled up. It gives you a bigger area to bounce into."

He thought for a minute. "Well, yeah. That's how I got that message back to you."

Rose threw her hands up at him. "If you already know all about this, why do you want to talk about it so much?"

He smiled at her, "I'm just amazed. I can't believe I'm sitting here talking to you about it! Sitting here listening to a beautiful woman talk about the Fifth Dimension like it's a child's toy! I'm having to use some extreme matters of self control at the moment because I want to hear all of this!"

Rose relaxed and laughed at him. "You are so funny."

He rubbed his hair in both of his hands and put a lollipop in his mouth. Rose laughed at his reaction.

"You have it bad." she told him.

He held his hand out at her in an attempt to compose himself. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and said, "There are many different dimensions. Yes, that's true. I read that in your paper. But the main dimension, the Prime Dimension that we came from is bigger. You said that in that paper. How do you know that?"

Rose explained. "Well, that's really a guess. Two reasons why. This version of Earth is smaller than the Earth we came from by 14 miles."

He smiled at her. "How do you know that? You didn't study Physics in the Prime Dimension."

She looked at him like he had dribbled on his shirt. "I took geography. I had to do a paper on the planet Earth. Mum made me look it up. I had to give a speech about it in class, and I never forgot that the circumference of the Earth is 7,926 miles or 12,756 kilometers at the equator. She made me recite it for weeks because I couldn't remember the numbers."

He looked impressed and nodded his head. "Okay, fair enough. Reason two?"

"Well, I think there was one dimension where the universe started. Then, it was copied. The copy is usually not completely the same as the original."

He looked at her, "Yeah, I could agree with that. I'm such a better person than him."

She rolled her eyes. "I wasn't talking about you. You're not a copy. You are something completely different."

"Right. Sorry. Continue." he rubbed his face.

"Well, that's really it. This dimension is missing things the other has. It's missing mass. It's missing Time Lords. It's missing..."

"CHESS! Holy shit, Rose! I totally haven't thought about that! Chess doesn't exist here!"

She glared at him. "I think you have ADD half of the time."

"Sorry, I just thought about that. I'll be good. Continue."

She smiled at him. "Chess. Why wouldn't there be chess here?"

"Time Lords invented it. Long, long ago."

"I think you are making that up." Rose accused him.

"Ask Pete if he's ever heard of it. I dare you!"

"It's probably just called something different."

He shook his head. "No! It's not here! It couldn't be! No Time Lords, no Chess. I should patent that."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Go ahead. So, is that all for my paper?"

He looked back at her. "No. I wanted to know how you guessed the dimensions were smaller than the Prime one because you are absolutely right. They are. And no one knows that. Einstein tried to get that out of me for years. I couldn't tell him. But you already know, so it's not a big deal."

"Why not?" Rose asked him.

"Well, that is right there in some of that stuff I can't really talk about. I can say that you are right. See, there is a base for the universe. You remember that when we found those Krillitanes that was trying to crack the base code to reboot the universe. There's a ... thing... you can do to restart the entire beginning of the universe. It will build the main universe, with all of its' everything in it. Then ... umm... it is copied."

"Interesting. How many times has that happened?"

"Can't tell you that." he said.

"You don't know?" she asked.

"No, I know. I was there at each beginning."

"Why?" Rose asked him.

He gritted his teeth. "Oh, dangerous questions. I've probably already told you too much. We need to talk about something else. Tell me about the Void."

"What about it? It's the Void. It's nothing." Rose shrugged.

"What if someone gets trapped there?"

"God, that would be terrible. Nothing exists there. Not even time." Rose said.

He looked at her surprised.

"What, am I right?" she asked him.

"Yes! Scary. Very right. No one knows that either. There is nothing there. If you are there long enough, you become nothing."

"Is that a dangerous thing to know?" Rose asked.

"Nah. It's even void of danger!" he joked.

She laughed at him. "This is a subject that has been hotly debated for a long time. Einstein was approached by ...ummm..."

"Kaluza, Theodor Kaluza. He wore glasses similar to John Lennon's." the Doctor helped.

Rose smiled as she continued. "See, he started with Einstein's theory of general relativity, he added that there were five dimensions instead of Einstein's four. Four being space, and one being time."

The Doctor shook his head. "Yes. I've talked to him many times about this. Einstein thought about it for over two years before he decided he agreed with him about that and had it published. 'The secret of light lies in the Fifth dimension.' he told me. You have to admit. It was a perfect explanation to light and gravity. He called it the theory, 'startling'."

Rose asked him, "So, it's true?"

"Yes. Every bit." he smiled. "I honestly couldn't have written a better paper on the subject. I told you that you were brilliant. I read that paper this morning and had my mind blown."

"You are just saying that."

"I'm not!" he laughed. He leaned over and rubbed her nose with his own. "Feel how sincere I am." He caught her lips and kissed her.

She could feel his sincerity. How proud he was of her. How full he was of love for her. How much hope he had that she believed him.

He leaned back and looked her in the eyes. "You are brilliant. When I get that TARDIS ready, I'm taking you to meet my friend Albert Einstein. He is going to hit on you so I'll have to keep a close eye on him, but you two will have so much to talk about."

Rose laughed at him and fought back a tear.

He noticed, "Sweetheart. Come here." He held her in his arms.

'I'm sorry.' she told him.

"Don't be! Cry if that's what it takes for you to understand how much you amaze me. While you cry, I'll try to catch my breath." he told her.

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