Helio was...an acceptable place to work, Rose decided. It wasn't as big as Henrik's, which meant less work for her. Unlike Henrik's large employee roster, though, it was just Iris and herself during the week. Most of the time the shop was steadily busy but not overwhelming. She got the impression that things picked up over the weekend, but that was when she had her days off.

So it wasn't like she was having the time of her life, but she felt good knowing that she was contributing to solving the problem. The Doctor needed a place to stay to figure out how to get them back to the TARDIS, and she was working to pay for that place and for food to keep them alive.

Not to mention, there was no better place to be than a clothing store if you wanted to know all about the time period you were stuck in. While Rose lived in jeans, and was used to seeing people wear them to all kinds of functions, from weddings to funerals, here in the 1960's jeans were still frowned upon. They belonged to the hippies who walked through London, smiling and signing and insisting that John Lennon could solve nearly any problem the world had.

And while she didn't mind wearing dresses and trousers, sometimes she really would kill for a pair of jeans. They were so comfortable!

"They just look so sloppy," Iris commented on Friday morning, staring out of the shop's picture window at a group of young men who were walking by. They were wearing casual shirts and jeans, and were clearly students who were up to no good.

"Wait'll you see them for sale with holes all over," Rose said before she could stop herself.

Iris glanced over, a confused look on her face. Rose busied herself with straightening up a rack of sunglasses. Iris decided that she must have misheard whatever it was Rose had said, and continued.

"I remember watching my mother dress to come shopping in London on the weekend. A perfect little suit and heels and hat."

"Like Jackie O?"

Iris glanced at Rose again, who cursed, not for the first time, the way she spoke without thinking.

"Er, Jackie Kennedy?"

"Yes! Exactly." Iris smiled. "And we girls had to wear school uniforms wherever we went. Our skirts had better touch the floor when we knelt, too, or we'd be in trouble."

"Yeah," Rose murmured. "Just like that where I grew up." She sighed. At her school minis and tank tops had been the rage, and no one would ever had made a girl kneel down to check the length of her skirt. The Doctor was enjoying this time period, but she was finding it a little constrictive.

"I'll get that," Iris said as the phone started to ring.

Rose continued to straighten up the racks. The shop was a nice place to be in the morning. Sunlight coming in through the windows lit up the walls, which were painted a pale yellow. Mirrors hung at various spots, letting women get a glimpse of themselves. Some were in the shape of suns and moons, which Rose thought was rather pretty. Her favorite mirror was a large silver circle, with a sunburst pattern of slender spokes exploding from it at different lengths all the way around. At the end of each length was a tiny round mirror.

The dressing rooms were in a long row at the back, individual cubbies with a full-length mirror on the door. Clustered in front of the dressing rooms were two couches and several chairs, all upholstered in luxurious yellow and blue fabric. It was a favorite spot for husbands and boyfriends to lounge on.

Iris was still on the phone fifteen minutes later when the delivery bell rang. Rose checked to make sure there was no one shopping in the store and motioned to Iris that she was going to the back room. Iris waved in acknowledgement, looking a little flustered. Heading through the door that led to the offices and kitchen, Rose continued on to the building's rear entrance, where deliveries were accepted.

"Go a new shipment today," Henry said, handing her a clipboard.

"Thanks." Rose scrawled her name and waited for him to wheel in a dolly full of boxes. Henry stopped by twice a day with merchandise deliveries from various warehouses, and Rose knew all about him - how he and his wife had two boys and longed for a girl, how he liked his job because he got to see all parts of London, and how his mother used to work for the Queen as a parlormaid.

"I'll leave them on the sales floor," Henry told her. "They're a bit heavy today. We don't want you two girls hurting yourselves."

Rose smiled and nodded, biting her tongue not to comment on the sexist remark. Women's lib hadn't quite reached everyone yet. Sometimes it was handy, though. She could open doors for herself all day long, but there was nothing like a big man for hauling heavy boxes around for you.

Iris was off the phone and helping a customer when Henry finished bringing in boxes and left. Rose started in on the top box, opening it to see a pile of dark blue fabric. She lifted it out to find a pair of slim fitting, dark blue trousers splashed all over with large red and yellow flowers. Rose was surprised at how much she liked them. In her mind the fashions of this time period were all ugly and full of plaids, but these were kind of cute. Not what she would ever be caught wearing back home, but for this place and time they were perfect.

"That was Mr. Troy on the phone," Iris said from behind her. Rose put the trousers down and turned around.

"Is everything okay?"

"He's got some news for us, he said. He'll be here in a little while."

Rose hadn't met her employer yet, and she nodded. "Hope it's not because I've done something wrong," she joked.

"Never," Iris assured her. "Aren't those cute!" She picked up the flowered trousers. "These would look adorable on you! We're not busy. Go try them on!"

"But I don't need them," Rose pointed out.

"Who needs clothes? We buy them because we want to." Iris rifled through a nearby rack of blouses. "Here!" She thrust a red t-shirt into Rose's arms along with the trousers. "Go on!"

Laughing, Rose went, taking off her blue dress and putting on the outfit before going out to show Iris.

"See?" Iris smiled as Rose modeled the outfit for her. "You have got the perfect figure for that."

Rose watched the bellbottoms swing around her feet. "It is cute," she agreed. "But I don't quite have the funds right now," she added, checking the price tag. Her current paypacket had been handed to her that morning, and it was already divided up into food and rent money, and she didn't dare do anything until they were more sure of what their situation was. It was one thing to spend money recklessly if they would be leaving later that day, but it looked like they were going to be in 1969 for a while, and they would need to be careful. The Doctor did not show as much concern as she did, feeling that they could be free with the sonic screwdriver and the psychic paper. Once in a while those tools were okay, Rose thought, but if they were going to be stuck here long-term they needed something more practical and legal.

"You know Mr. Troy wants us to wear what we sell," Iris admonished her. "He won't mind if you take them home and pay next week. And our employee discount will go a long way."

It was too tempting. "I'll wrap them up," Rose decided. Someone entered the shop just then, and she ducked back into the dressing room to change her clothes.

A steady stream of people came and went that morning, keeping Rose busy with ringing up sales and putting away clothing. Helio Fashions had a devoted client base, and she was accustomed by now to seeing women dressed in their very best to come do some shopping. Most women in London wore shirtdresses or suits when they shopped, and they always looked as though they'd taken an hour to do their hair and makeup first.

Rose herself was tired of all the work getting ready involved, and it had only been a week. She still teased her hair and put it up, because that was fun and she was good at it. The pale shades of makeup and the way she had to coat her face in foundation wasn't as much fun, and now she left her face bare, wearing only eyeliner and mascara and some lip gloss. It made her still feel like herself, not herself pretending to be someone else.

"Mr. Troy will be here soon," Iris said to Rose after lunch. "I'm just going to pop into the office and make sure all the invoices he wants to look at are ready. Mind the place for me?"

"Sure." Rose smiled and settled back at the front counter. She busied herself by straightening the boxes and tissue paper, then moved on to dusting the till. It was moments like this that made her feel...well, bored. She knew the Doctor was back at the flat, hard at work, and she was here ringing up sales and having to be polite to complete strangers. Running for your life seemed a lot easier.

Rose's thoughts were interrupted by the gentle chime of the bell that rang whenever the door to the shop opened. Instead of the usual sort of customer, it was a tall, dark-haired man who entered. He stood inside the door for a moment, looking all around the shop. There was an odd look of appraisal in his eyes, and Rose had a sudden suspicion about who this man was.

He spotted Rose and immediately headed her way. Stopping before her, he surveyed her with the same appraising look.

"You must be Rose Tyler." He held out his hand. "Hector Troy. I own this shop."

Rose shook his hand. "I'm Rose, yes. Nice to meet you."

"How are you enjoying it so far?"

She smiled. "It's been interesting," she answered truthfully. "I'm learning a lot."

"Excellent. Iris says that you're a hard worker. I appreciate that."

"Thank you," Rose murmured, and thankfully to be relieved of further conversation when Iris came back out onto the sales floor.

"Mr. Troy! I didn't know you were here."

"I just got here," he assured her. "Rose, we'll be in the back office. You can mind things out here, can't you?"

"Of course."

It was close to closing time before Mr. Troy departed. Iris rejoined Rose, who had been putting out the clothing that had arrived earlier.

"I'm so sorry," Iris said guiltily. "I didn't mean to leave you out here alone for so long."

"It was really no problem," Rose assured her. "Not like you got to decide, was it?"

"No." Iris shook her head and started to pick up the empty boxes at their feet.

"Besides, I enjoy it." And Rose did enjoy it. The stream of customers was steady but slow, and she thought the music playing on the radio was fun. "So what did he want, anyway?" Rose finished up the last item of clothing and hung a navy dress on the rack. "Took you a long time."

"We were going over sales figures. He wanted to check a few numbers before making a final decision."

"About what?"

"Mr. Troy is going to expand the shop." Iris said. "I don't believe it. We've only been open...well, it's been about a year. But he wants to knock down the wall between our space and that empty space next door, make the shop larger. Maybe a carry a men's line."

"That'd be nice," Rose said, thinking of the Doctor and how he was refusing to wear anything other than his brown suit.

Iris glanced at her. "That's right," she said in surprise. "For a moment I forgot all about John."

She sounded apologetic, but as Rose herself needed a moment to remember who John was, she didn't mind.

"Do you think he'd wear anything we sold?" Iris continued.

"Maybe. He's pretty particular about what he wears." Rose spoke with a straight face. "When he likes something, he hangs on to it for ages and ages."

"What is it with men and hating to shop?" Iris wanted to know. "Just no appreciation for the fun things in life."

"The Doc - John likes to shop," Rose was compelled to say. "Just for stuff that he finds interesting." She nudged aside an empty carton. "Let me dress the mannequin in the window, and then we'll be done."

The Doctor was always aware of time. It hovered in his consciousness. Timelines, real and potential, flowed before his eyes. Even so, he was mildly surprised to look up from Sally Sparrow's transcript and become aware of the fact that it was long past lunchtime.

He set down the bizarre, one-way conversation Sally Sparrow had written down - Well, I can hear you. Not hear you exactly, but I know everything you're going to say - and glanced around. Where was Rose? Abruptly, he missed her. He missed seeing her all the time, missed sharing adventures and misadventures with her. This dividing of labor was not to his liking if it meant that Rose would be away from him for long periods of time each day. She belonged with him. He scowled at the papers as if they were to blame for his current predicament.

Well, if it was the end of the workday - 4:57 pm - it was almost time for Rose to come home. Standing up, the Doctor stretched his legs. Patting his pockets to make sure the sonic screwdriver was there, he headed out of the flat, locking the door behind him.

No one was around as he walked down the hallway and jogged down the stairs. The door closest to the exit doors opened a bit, and the Doctor waved.

"Hello, Mrs. MacMurray!"

There might have been a face in the crack of the door, but he wasn't sure. The door closed without a reply. The Doctor grinned to himself. Hands in his pockets, he whistled a careless tune, smiling indiscriminately at people as he passed them by on the street.

1969 was so much fun! The moon landing to look forward to, of course. Someday he'd take Rose there for real, so she could watch it happen. Once he had the TARDIS back they'd go, he vowed.

It was no work at all to track down the shop where Rose was working. A golden sun hung above the entrance. The neighboring storefront was vacant, but there was a beauty shop on the other side. As the Doctor walked closer, the beauty shop's pink door opened, discharging a massive smell of hairspray that made him recoil. An elderly woman stepped out, her white hair swept up in a massive knot at the top of her head. She nodded a greeting at him as she walked by. The Doctor stared after her, in awe of the amount of hairspray that must have gone into her hairstyle.

A sound coming from the vacant storefront drew his attention away. Curious, he stepped over to it, but before he could investigate he caught sight of the picture window of Rose's shop. Rose herself stood there, fitting a dress onto a mannequin. Her hair fell across her face, and the skirt of her dress rode up high on her legs. One leg was stretched out for balance, pulling the material tightly across her chest.

The Doctor stood, poleaxed. Rose finished struggling with the mannequin and stepped down out of the display window, pushing her hair back from her face. She saw the Doctor out on the street and her face lit up with an immediate smile. He grinned back and pushed open the door of the shop.

"Doc - Hello!" Rose beamed, hurrying to him and taking his hand. "Iris! This is - this is my - er..." She floundered, unsure what to call him.

"You must be John," Iris said warmly. "So nice to meet you." She shook the Doctor's hand with a firm grip. "Are you finished with your studies for the weekend?"

"Er, yes," the Doctor said. "Slow part of the semester right now." He looked down at Rose. "Do you have much longer? I can wait." He heard the eagerness in his voice but didn't care. He would wait as long as he had to, but he was not leaving without Rose.

"Young love," Iris said with a wistful note in her voice. "Go on. I'll take care of things here."

Rose was already heading for her bag. "You sure?"

"Have a good weekend."

"You too!" Rose grabbed her bag, allowed the Doctor to take her hand, and walked out of the shop.

"Mmm, fresh air!" she said cheerfully. "Did you have a good day?"

He didn't answer her. "I got tired of waiting for you all day. Are you sure you need to work so hard?"

Rose smiled, relishing the feel of her hand in his. "We need to eat, Doctor."

"Rose, we've been over this. I can get whatever we need."

"We can't keep taking stuff that's not ours," she interrupted him. "Better to save the sonic and the psychic paper for when we really need them. Besides, both of us don't need to be in the flat. I'm useless to you."

"Don't say that," he said sternly, pointing a finger at her nose. "You are very necessary to me, Rose Tyler."

She was absurdly pleased, but tried to keep things light. "That's me. As necessary as oxygen and chips."

"Oh, no," he corrected her, pulling her in by the hand so their shoulders touched. "Much more necessary than oxygen."

Rose smiled.