Chapter One: Family Time
Rose leaned back into the drop cloth-covered couch and looked around the room. Her mum and Pete had purchased a house in Cardiff, and she and the Doctor had spent all day painting and cleaning. After two months spent monitoring the lingering effects of the Reality Bomb, the domesticity was jarring.
A sharp pain hit Rose between her shoulder blades, and she grimaced and rolled her shoulders. Every muscle in her body ached. She was in good shape, but she didn't usually spend hours holding a paint roller over her head.
A moment later, familiar hands settled on her shoulders and started massaging the tension away. Rose sighed and leaned forward so the Doctor could get that spot in the middle of her back.
She enjoyed the massage for a few minutes, then reached for his hand and tugged, asking him silently to sit down with her. He collapsed beside her, looking every bit as tired as she felt. He had a smudge of dirt on his cheek and his hair stuck straight up.
"What have you and Pete been up to?"
"Putting together the furniture for Tony's room." The Doctor rubbed a hand over his face, smudging the dirt even more. "I need to create a setting on the sonic for Allen keys. Those belong on a list of forbidden torture devices."
Jackie's snort interrupted Rose's teasing response. "And here I thought you were some kind of superior alien," she said as she entered the room, carrying two tall glasses of water. "How the mighty have fallen—defeated by an Ikea flat pack."
Rose listened to the Doctor's internal debate, weighing the merits of defending himself against the likelihood that Jackie would dump the glass of water over his head. In the end, he only rolled his eyes and said, "Thankfully, the fate of the universe has never rested on my ability to put together furniture named after obscure Scandinavian locales."
Jackie handed them the water and sat down on a folding chair. "Speaking of strange places, we haven't seen Jenny and Donna lately. Where are they at now?"
Rose blinked. "You've seen them?"
Her mum raised an eyebrow. "You would have seen them too if you hadn't been off to Neptune doing whatever," she retorted. "They stopped by a few weeks ago before catching a plane to New York."
Rose sipped at her water to cover up the urge to sigh. The trip to Paris had whetted Jenny's interest in seeing more of the Earth. By airplane, she'd insisted, because that was how humans did it.
Donna had been happy to travel the world with her. Rose suspected the trip was a way for her to keep her mind off the fact that they still hadn't found Lee. Four months had passed since the Library, and the TARDIS still hadn't picked up even a trace of him.
Rose abruptly realised her mum was staring at her expectantly. It only took her a second to remember what they'd been talking about.
"They're in Sydney," she said. "They'll be back for your big housewarming party, but they really wanted to see Australia before coming home."
"Hah!" Jackie wagged her finger at Rose. "Now you know what it's like, having your only child go off travelling by herself."
Rose pursed her lips. "It's not that," she argued. "Well, not only that," she amended. "It's fun having other people on the TARDIS with us. I miss it."
"What do you miss?" Pete asked. He pulled a second folding chair over and sat down beside Jackie.
"Having friends travel with us."
"Apparently I'm not enough company," the Doctor added, earning a poke in the side from Rose and a snort from Jackie.
"More like you're a bit too much," Jackie countered. "Can't imagine being married to an alien."
"No, you just married a man from a parallel universe," Pete interjected.
Jackie rolled her eyes, then looked at Rose. Rose groaned at the look in her eye. Interrogation time, she warned the Doctor.
"Speaking of marrying an alien…" Jackie raised an eyebrow and looked at Rose, then at the Doctor, and back again. "You mentioned something about weird alien rituals."
Rose opened her mouth, but before she could start explaining the bond, her mother started rambling.
"I've been thinking, maybe you had to wear funny hats? Or defeat someone in armed combat?" She pointed at the Doctor. "Maybe Rose had to go back in time to ask your family for your hand in marriage."
"Nothing like that, Mum," Rose said quickly before Jackie could continue on that train of thought and bring back painful memories of Gallifrey.
"Well, what was it then?" She narrowed her eyes. "You better not have been naked for this wedding."
"No! We were fully clothed." The Doctor felt his neck heat up.
Help!
Rose took his hand and he let out a slow breath. "Leave 'im be, Mum," she scolded. "It was mostly just like a wedding. I wore a beautiful dress and we exchanged vows and rings and everything."
"Well that doesn't sound too weird."
"Yeah…" Rose squeezed his hand and he squeezed back, agreeing with her sudden decision. "I was mostly teasing when I said that."
Jackie crossed her arms over her chest. "So your wedding was completely normal?" she asked, dubious.
Rose bit her lip. "Well, we were alone in the TARDIS," she said slowly. "And we did a handfasting because that's part of the Doctor's tradition."
"Hmmm…" Jackie raised an eyebrow.
Rose knew she didn't believe her, but explaining the bond was a far longer conversation than she wanted to have right now. Some day she'd try, but not today.
"It was perfect," she said, wanting to move away from the alienness of their wedding.
As she thought about that day, something occurred to her. "And our wedding anniversary is only two weeks away," she added.
The Doctor blinked, and she was glad she wasn't the only one who'd lost track of time. "We'll have to go someplace to celebrate."
"Mind if I plan this trip?"
He smiled and brushed his thumb over her wrist. "I'd love it."
"Rose?"
The childish voice drew everyone's attention, and they all looked over at Tony, standing in the doorway.
"Yes, Tony?"
He shuffled forward, a book in his hand. "Will you and the Doctor read to me?"
The Doctor scooted over and patted the cushion in between himself and Rose. "You bet!"
The little boy grinned, then darted across the room and jumped up onto the couch. Rose grabbed the book from him before he could stab himself in the eye with it or something.
"Under the Deep Blue Sea."
As Rose turned to the first page, she suddenly knew exactly where she wanted to take the Doctor for their anniversary.
oOoOo
The Doctor followed Rose as she pushed her way to the front of the crowd waiting at Heathrow. "The board says their flight landed half an hour ago," she told him. "They should be almost through customs by now."
When the first passengers started trickling in a few minutes later, the Doctor gave Rose one end of the sign they'd made. Around them, other people likewise held up their signs—Limousine for Mr. Arbuckle, etc.
The trickle turned into a solid wave of people. "Can you see them, Doctor?" Rose asked as she strained to look through the crowd.
"No… Wait! Yes! Hold the sign up, Rose."
They waved it madly, and a moment later they were rewarded by familiar laughter. Rose leaned sideways and saw Jenny and Donna walking towards them, wheelie bags in tow.
"TARDIS for Miss Noble and Miss Tyler?" Donna rolled her eyes.
The Doctor turned the sign around and studied it. "Well, we wouldn't want anyone else to think they could get a free ride."
"We told you we'd take the train to Cardiff, though," Jenny said.
Donna nudged her gently with her elbow. "You owe me ten quid, Jenny. I told you they wouldn't be able to resist surprising us."
The Doctor's mouth fell open, and when he looked over at Rose he was thankful to see that at least she was as surprised as he was.
Jenny hitched her backpack up on her shoulders. "I still say giving them the flight information was cheating."
"I didn't realise we were so predictable," the Doctor muttered.
Donna smirked and turned her suitcase so he could take the handle. "We just know you too well."
Rose shook her head and grabbed Jenny's suitcase. "Come on, we should get out of the way. The TARDIS is just a short bus ride away."
Thirty minutes later, the Doctor unlocked the door and held it open while Rose, Donna, and Jenny walked inside. He heard Donna and Jenny sigh in unison, and raised his eyebrows at them.
"Glad you don't have to take a train after travelling for over twenty-four hours?" he guessed.
"Definitely," Donna said fervently.
"And glad we can hop into the Vortex and get some sleep without Gran knowing we didn't go straight to Cardiff," Jenny added.
The Doctor and Rose exchanged a glance, then Rose gave Donna and Jenny a sly smile. "About that… Are you set on going to Cardiff?"
Donna crossed her arms over her chest. "The housewarming party is next week. I've only met your mum a few times, but I have a pretty good idea of what will happen if you miss it."
The Doctor grimaced and rubbed at his cheek, making everyone laugh.
Rose chuckled and shook her head. "Yeah, you're right about that. But our anniversary is the day after tomorrow, so we're going on a short holiday before the big shindig. We can drop you in Cardiff for the week, or—"
"Or," Donna said before Rose could continue.
Jenny nodded eagerly. "You mean you'll drop us off on another planet, yeah?"
"If you want," Rose said.
Jenny and Donna exchanged a look, then broke out in matching grins. "Yes!"
Rose hugged Donna and kissed Jenny on the cheek, then gently pushed them both towards the corridor. "Go lie down. We'll drop you off in the morning after you've slept off some of the jet lag." She leaned against a strut and watched them go, while the Doctor sent them into the Vortex just like Jenny had asked.
He slid the dematerialisation lever into place, and the time rotor quietly chugged up and down. The transition into the Vortex was so smooth that Rose hardly felt it.
A soft mental tug caught her attention, and she looked over at the Doctor. He'd sat down on the jump seat, and now he patted the seat beside him.
Rose pushed off from the strut and walked around the console, hopping up to sit beside the Doctor like she'd done a thousand times. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him.
"What are you thinking?"
"This life," she said, talking slowly so she could put the words together as they came to her. "It's… so much more than I thought it would be."
She paused, and the Doctor left the silence empty so she could think.
"I thought I'd lost this at Canary Wharf," she said finally.
"Lost what?"
"Just… human things," she said, testing the words as she went. "Helping family move. Meeting them at the airport."
She tilted her head back so she could look at the Doctor. "I love our life, traveling through time and space. And if I could never have anything else, this is what I'd choose. Every time."
"But we get to have more," he supplied, understanding what she was trying to get at. "Our life in the TARDIS, and a family on Earth."
"Yeah. Time and space… and family."