After work, Rose and Amy took the bus to Rose's mum's place since Amy didn't have a place to stay, which led to awkward interrogation about where Amy's car was.
"I don't have one… It was stolen…" Amy said awkwardly, faking sadness. "That's why I'm broke, all my stuff was in it," She sighed longingly to get her point across. She had plenty of practice acting from her many days as a kissogram.
"That's awful!" Rose cried, totally buying Amy's charade. "I'm so sorry!"
"It's fine, I needed to do some spring cleaning," Amy joked.
"Oh, we get off here!" Rose declared, tapping Amy's arm. The girls stood as the bus screeched to a halt, climbing agiley over the limbs and seats of the bus goers. It was nothing compared to the snake spider hybrids the Doctor had made Rose climb through on an odd purple skied planet.
"It's not too far a walk now," Rose said, gesturing vaguely towards her house. "Come on, we have like twenty guest bedrooms you can choose from!"
They began to walk down the London streets, a zeppelin flying overhead in the evening sky with Pete Tyler's face plastered to it, advertising his new energy drink.
"That's my dad," Rose said amused, pointing up at the zeppelin. "You'll meet him if he's home for dinner tonight.
"I don't understand to whole zeppelin craze," Amy hinted for some sort of explanation. She assumed it was a recent occurrence, since they hadn't been there on her last London trip.
"I know! Everyone seems to love them but personally I think they're pretty tacky… And they muck up the sky so you can't see the stars." Silence filled the darkened evening air. "I love the stars." Rose's eyes grew wistful, her eyes resting longingly on the zeppelin and street lights around her, wanting to tear them down, just to glimpse at what she and the Doctor had lost.
Only about three more years 'till I see 'em again Rose remembered, smiling sadly to herself. Her human Doctor had promised her the stars would be theirs to share in three years time, when the TARDIS was Doctor and Rose Tyler, exploring the unfamiliar universe together.
"I love them too… So much," Amy murmured. Both girls fell silent.
And you couldn't possibly know, Amy thought. Sorrow pushed at the back of her eyes. She wanted to go home, wherever it was.
Silence filled the air between the girl's, both longing for their magical man to take them to see the stars
"Rose!" A loud voice boomed. Two arms appeared from the darkness, enveloping the blonde girl, hugging her tightly.
Amy's eyes widened, alarmed as the dark brown haired man emerged from the shaded alleyway, crushing her small new blonde friend to his chest. Her muscles relaxed as she saw a grin of surprise replace the one of melancholy of Rose's face. Rose brushed the man's lips with her own as he lifted her off the ground.
"Oh my God you scared me!" Rose giggled, rustling the Doctor's spikey hair playfully. The Doctor grinned, nodding confused towards Amy.
"I think I scared your friend a bit more," The Doctor remarked, releasing Rose from his tight grasp, setting her gently back to the ground. He kept her hand encased in his. He motioned with his other hand towards Amy, who still looked fairly nervous.
Suddenly, the Doctor's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Who is she?" He asked a bit rudely. Rose rolled her eyes.
"She's my new coworker! And hopefully my soon-to-be new roommate!" Rose explained.
"My name's Amy. Amy Pond," Amy introduced, holding out a hand for the Doctor to shake.
Amy Williams, she remembered. But Rory wasn't here. He wasn't with her. She couldn't be Amy Williams without Rory.
The Doctor ignored Amy's offer, inching closer to her. He ran a hand through a lock of ginger hair jealously.
"I'm… John. John Smith," He introduced, his tone filled with mistrust.
Rose looked puzzled. The Doctor still called himself the Doctor, even as a human. But overall, she was used to the Doctor's strange ordeals, and knew he usually did things for a reason, so she decided not to question him.
"This is the deadbeat boyfriend I was telling you about," Rose explained to Amy, who looked thoroughly lost. Rose turned to the Doctor. "She's staying for dinner, John," She said, the name sticking uncomfortably to her tongue, like a hot drink in sticky summer weather. "You should come for dinner too… As a guest.. Not as someone who lives there," Rose clarified.
"Is that acceptable enough a loophole for Jackie Tyler?"
"It's better than you starving, come on!" Rose insisted, and the group of three set out through the alleyway back to Pete and Jackie's house.
"What's that?" Amy wondered curiously, pointing to a large mass of wires and bit of coral twirling around each other.
"That's where he lives," Rose answered. "It's called a TA-"
"Oh come on! Allons-y!" The Doctor interrupted, urging the girls forward impatiently. "I didn't have lunch today, I'm starving!" He directed his voice to Rose's ear, whispering, "You humans, needing food every four hours!" Rose giggled quietly, grabbing his hand even tighter. He still insulted the human race regularly, even though he was a human too now.
It wasn't very long at all until the three of them arrived at Jackie and Pete's residence. Amy felt her jaw drop.
"Just how rich are you?" She stammered, staring in disbelief at the extremely large domain.
"S' just my dad," Rose replied, shrugging. She still wasn't used to being rich. She would always be an estate girl at heart. "Come on, let's go in!"
She led them up the driveway into the elegant front doors.
Amy stared around the house in awe.
I must be good, she thought.Homeless for a day and now I get to stay here.
Rose inhaled deeply, smelling no sign of her mum's cooking.
"I think we're getting pizza!" She said excitedly.
"Makes sense, your mum must be picking it up. That would explain the absence of complaints about you bringing in strays," The Doctor reasoned. "Does anyone have a clean sock? You might need one too," he motioned to Amy. "They lessen the sting."
"Sting of what?" Amy inquired quizzically, covering her face instinctively.
"Yeah, my mum's a bit partial to slapping unknown guests," Rose looked to her side. "And him," She added.
Rose looked between the two, the Doctor smiling innocently, Amy glancing around the room in awe. "Amy why don't you go down that hall… There are two guest rooms, just pick whichever you fancy," Rose dismissed. She wanted to speak to the Doctor alone.
Amy took the hint, and began her way down the long hallway.
Rose leaned into the Doctor's shoulder, twirling a lock of her own blonde hair through her fingers.
"So…. Mr. Smith, what do you think of our esteemed ginger guest?" She asked, her voice playful, yet confused. He was always the Doctor. The thought of choosing an ordinary human name appalled him when Jackie brought it up last year.
The Doctor stared ahead, almost like he didn't hear her.
"Doctor!" She hissed, causing the Doctor to jump in surprise, his chocolate eyes widening. "Well you seem jumpy," Rose furrowed her eyebrows. "Oh God is it her skirt!? it is a bit short, isn't it?! And the leggings! You think she's sexy! And you're still not used to being human so you-"
The Doctor lifted his hand and placed it over Rose's lips defiantly.
"Shhhhhh," he demanded softly, removing his hand. Rose grew silent, staring at him curiously.
"You know there are better ways of shutting me up," She reminded him, her tone bordering between irritated and flirtatious. "Seriously though… Why John?"
"Your new friend seems… Wrong," He sighed. "Sort of like the feeling I get around you and Jackie. Like she shouldn't be here." The Doctor frowned.
"You think she's alien?" Rose wondered.
"Could be," He sniffed. "Or maybe it's just some human feeling I'm mistaking as a 'something's wrong' timelord feeling."
"Figures I'd pick an alien to be friends with. That's so me…. It is a bit odd though… Her showing up in London completely broke."
"I've seen weirder," The Doctor said, offering Rose his best smile. "Just in case she is some alien spy, I think it would be better if she doesn't know that we're aliens too for the time being."
Rose grinned. She loved when the Doctor called her alien. She was, technically, alien to this Earth. It made her feel more like him.