Rose had woken to the shrill ringing of her phone and with a long suffering sigh answered her mother's call as she dragged herself out of the warm cocoon she had somehow constructed during
the night, unsurprised to find the room sans one Doctor. She'd left her phone on the vanity as she quickly showered, her mother continuing to go on without seeming to notice a lack of response from her end of the phone. Rose slipped on a pair of jeans and a hoodie, something she hadn't done since those first few weeks without him before Norway and shuffled barefoot along the hall and into the kitchen, sighing in relief, feeling the warmth from the fire sooth away the cold as she sat down at the table beside it.
"Oh thank god," She groaned at the sight of a steaming tea mug sitting alone in the middle of the table, somehow he always knew what she needed when she needed it. She'd forgotten in their long years apart, how much she missed having someone know her as well as he did. She was glad he hadn't seemed to forget it either. It took half her mug of tea to pick the phone up from the table and engage in the conversation. The results of which led to her slumping against the door frame to the cellar, unable to enter for the smell or the string of small explosions and alien profanities belying the Doctor's current location behind the boiler.
"Mum phoned-"
"No." Came the firm response from the alien at the bottom of the stairwell.
"Oh come on Doctor-"
"No, absolutely not!"
"But-"
"I don't care!" He bellowed from the cellar, "She's not my mother!"
"Stop acting like a child," Rose rolled her eyes from the top of the stairs, "It's only dinner-"
"Does it look like I have a death wish?" He muttered as he hunched over the small cradle with its impressively infinite number of tubes and electrodes, not to mention seven beakers of some of the rankest, most revoltingly disgusting concoctions Rose had ever smelt, all in the aid of a small but incredibly important, piece of coral.
"Almost-" He whispered, his tongue firmly planted to the roof of him mouth as he thread the delicate filaments into the porous holes of the coral, grinning as the air around it rippled slightly.
"Oh ho ho, there we are," He cooed, "Now who's a good girl then?"
"Doctor?" Rose suddenly appeared at his side and he sprung from his crouch only to bash the top of his head against the boilers piping.
"Blimey Rose ease up," He gasped, clutching his chest dramatically, "I've only got one now."
"If you don't quit moaning a coronary is the last thing you'll be worrying about." She crossed her arms.
"Is that a promise Tyler?" He raised an eyebrow with a wink as he ducked back down in front of the baby TARDIS.
"Shut up," She blushed, clearing her throat before continuing,"So Sunday lunch at Mum and Pete's-"
"Didn't we already have this discussion?" He replied, gently replaced the lid on the makeshift humidity crib.
"Ah, no," She raised an eyebrow, "This 'discussion' didn't even begin you just flat out refused, besides how did you know it was mum on the phone anyway?"
"Superior Biology," He mumbled as he opened a small keypad on the crib, typing away commands at a thousand miles as hour before smashing down the enter key with a flourish and causing the whole crib to begin a slow burning glow and hum.
"There we are, all done!" He flashed a brilliant grin at his companion, "All she needs now is the incorporation of the matrix components and Idris has it all sorted once the corals developed enough to syncopate its antilogarithms to the original TARDIS, or, well, as close as she can get and hey presto one fully grown TARDIS in a matter of-"
He finally registered the tapping foot at the end of a rather attractive looking leg which unfortunately for him belonged to a Tyler woman, his to be specific only he hadn't actually voiced it aloud as yet, who he'd happen to have been ignoring for the last two minutes and twenty-five seconds.
He cleared his throat not meeting her eyes, "Fine." His stomach growled violently and his face dropped at the thought of being starving and having to eat Jackie Tyler's Sheppard's pie.
"Oh relax Doctor," Rose rolled her eyes, recognising his sulky expression, "She keeps the help on for this sorta' thing."
"You mean she- isn't- cooking?" He raised a hopeful eyebrow.
"No," She shook her head with small smirk. "Likes to be able to spend it with the rest o' us rather than slavin' away in the kitchen all day."
"Oh thank the gods for that," He released a sigh of relief.
"The oncoming storm quivering at the likes of mum," She muttered with a shake of her head as
she gently laid her fingers against the side of the TARDIS crib.
"Should introduce her to the daleks," He quipped from the opposite side of the cradle, "They'll think I'm the tooth fairy in comparison."
"Do daleks even have teeth?" Rose queried.
"They looked human once." He replied off-handedly, fiddling with a knob here and there. A silence seemed to stretch on between the two.
"Back in London you said-" She started for a moment but decided against voicing her question
any further.
"I said," He glanced up at her, his eyes looking through her now more ancient than she had ever
seen them. "Humans look Time Lord."
"Yea." She nodded.
"It's true," He continued softly, "Back before they meddled in genetics, mind you some chose to remain as they were, a few of them eventually even made it off world without any Time Lord assistance." He scratched his sideburns in thought.
"So your people?" She queried, "Weren't all like you, not all Time Lords?"
"None of them were ever really like me," He scoffed, "Things would have been a lot different perhaps if they had, but you're right, Time Lord is a title bestowed upon the elite, born and bred to watch over the realm of Time."
"-Gallifrey," Rose whispered, their eyes locking. Her dark brown orbs seeming as fathomless as his own as golden flecks danced across her iris in the reflection from the corals' cradle.
"Yes." He nodded, hands slipping into his pockets as he regarded her curiously. "No doubt you've seen her too, even if you don't remember it consciously," He mused with a small smile, "One doesn't become intimate with a child of Gallifrey without witnessing the very essence of her being, so entwined the two once were."
"Sometimes I dream of her," Rose breathed, "Of Time and you at its very heart, like the eye of a hurricane, ancient and forever-"
"It's who I am Rose," He acknowledged, "Who I was born to be, but I'm not the only one here who sings of Time Rose Tyler."
"I am the bad wolf-" She took a step back from the cradle as she registered what had slipped from her lips, her eyes clearing slightly as a dizziness overtook her. "I-"
"It's alright," He chuckled moving to take her hand gently, "It'll pass."
She looked up at him through the blonde tresses that had fallen across her face, long, slender fingers caressing her cheek as he tucked the loose strands behind her ear.
"What was that?" She shook her head in confusion.
"You're standing little over a few inches away from a being with the whole of Time and Space running through her heart, or what soon will be." He smiled, "A heart that you once shared yourself with to save the life of a stupid, old fool."
"Oi-" Her chastisement almost a whisper, "I didn't chase that stupid, old fool across dimensions for no reason ya know."
"Yea?" He grinned.
"Yes." She rolled her eyes, backhanding him gently in the stomach. "Shut up."
"Yes Ma'am." He mock saluted as he followed her retreating form up the stairs to the kitchen.
"Hurry up then ya silly old fool," She snorted, "Mum won't wait all day."