Rose woke to the buzz of a sonic screwdriver, the Doctor was running it over her, with that furrowed brow look of concentration he gets, and his glasses perched on the end of his nose. She felt paralysed, unable to move her limbs, panic seared through her until she realised that she was buried under piles of blankets. Opening her moth to speak she was alarmed by the croak that came out, the noise snapped the Doctors head up from his studies. "Rose? Are you awake" he was leaning over her, brushing hair from her face, smoothing it behind her ear. she croaked at him again before he helped her sit and pressed a class of cool water to her lips. "Slowly, sip it slowly." He ordered as she took the glass from him. Handing it back empty she realised it was well past mid day.
She gasped and sat too fast, making her head spin alarmingly fast, as though it was rotating on an odd axis. Putting the heel of her hand to her forehead to steady her revolving brain she felt him slide an arm round her shoulders and gently lie her back down. He gave her that concerned smile "how do you feel?" without waiting for her to answer he continued "when you didn't wake up this morning I got worried" there he was being clingy again, that was so strange to her, she was used to her Doctor shutting her out where his emotions were concerned, not begging for her attention. "You're dehydrated, nutrient starved, flushed full of caffeine...and exhausted Rose. It's almost impossible you're still wandering around"
The concerned look he gave her was unnervingly familiar, he actually looked like him, and it made her heart ache. "What have you been doing to yourself?" his voice was soft, he moved to lie next to her propped on one elbow. Ignoring his question, she blushed furiously and apologised, though she wasn't entirely sure why.
"I'm sorry." She mumbled at him, and he felt that knot of caring and love twist a bit tighter, she looked so small all wrapped up in bed. "I've never done that before, I guess I was just tired. I've been...focused."
"Do you feel well enough to get up? You need to eat." Honestly he'd been worried, for a few hours after he had woken he thought that she must still be sleeping off the exhaustion, he was secretly quite proud of her for keeping going, 4 hours and he was convincing Jackie that her daughter was fine, just very tired, if she hadn't woken when she did the Doctor would have resorted to a human medical facility, he was scanning her for damage and infection when she came round. She was fussing with blankets, he had dressed when he woke, uncomfortable with his nudity. She was still naked beneath the sheets, and obviously struggling with the concept. He watched her crawl to the edge of the bed and swing her legs out, then sit looking a little forlorn. Remembering a flash of pink on the back of her bedroom door, he retrieved a fluffy dressing gown, and offered her both his hands to help her stand. Holding the dressing gown for her like a coat he watched her turn and threads her arms through their corresponding sleeves. As she shrugged her shoulders into the robe, she seemed to lose the tension in her knees, swaying back into his waiting arms. She seemed almost content to lean back against him, not quite standing, not quite falling. So he manoeuvres himself in order to wrap an arm around her waist, inviting her to do the same. They walked through to the living room and he deposited her on the big settee, she seemed more alert now, though he was increasing worried about her apparent weakness. He had never seen Rose like this before, she had never been anything but grumpy or chirpy in the mornings. He produced a tray containing sweet tea, fruit, juice and toast. "Here, eat this." He said after plonking it on her lap and flopping down next to her. He watched her devour the contents of the tray, all the while feeling relieved to see colour begin to creep back into her cheeks.
While she ate, Rose thought about the events of the night before. Such intimacy, giving way to such grief. Maybe it was what they both needed. To her it had felt like letting go, the anger at the original Doctor that had been itching and irritating at the back of her throat, had subsided. The ache was still there, but it was soothed by the fact he felt the same. They had common ground there. They hadn't spoken while they sobbed their hurt into each other's arms. His anger had scared her, she had felt powerless in the face of such rage, turned to lust. But then, if what the Doctor had said about the new version of himself being broken was true, what did she expect. It is true that the rolling thunderous clouds in his eyes reminded her of his taller, quieter self. But there was a rough needing edge to him now. The human part, she assumed. Perhaps the selfless repression of emotion had gone the with the missing half of his time lord self.
"m' sorry, I didn't leave you any." She said finishing the last of her tea off. He just grinned back at her, "ah...Time Lord me, don't need...wait...well not Time Lord, half, but you know, still don't need to eat as much. Though you may want to get some more jam, I ate that." He wiggled the fingers on his right hand her, and she grinned back at him. It occurred to her then that this was very domestic, more domestic than it had ever been with him on the TARDIS. He was sitting with both arms spread along the back of the sofa, legs out on front of him, crossed at the ankles, and she realised he wasn't wearing any shoe, or socks. She turned to see him watching her, seemingly gauging her reactions. "I feel alot better now." She smiled at him, "M' sorry, I guess it must have been close to four days since I slept. The adrenaline and stuff must've kept me goin'."
They spent an hour just sitting, drinking in the events of the past few days, the Doctor had had time to organise his turbulent thoughts while he watched over her sleeping form. Processing the fact that he would never travel through time again, never step inside his TARDIS, never... there were a lot of things he would never do again. Most of them are things he wouldn't want to do again, but still. She broke his reverie unexpectedly "What do we do now?" she wasn't looking at him, she had curled up with her head against his chest, facing out across the room, to the back wall which had a good view across the surrounding grounds. "Well, I don't know, I was hoping you could help there. Thing is...I don't really know where to start, do I need carpets? I remember you mentioning those, and a mortgage." He felt her giggle through his chest as she lifted her head to look at him. "You daft sod, I was thinking more that you would live here with me...well" sudden uncertainty swept over Rose's face "I mean if you want to." He had that smile again, the one that implies she may have just said the most amazing thing in the world, he was smiling so broadly he had dimples either side of his mouth. She grinned back at him, mentally making notes to make up the guest room. "And I was thinking maybe you could work with me...at Torchwood." She watched as the anger seeped back into his eyes, and held her breath against the speech she felt worming its way up through the memories of damage done.
No, Rose knew that if she wanted to make him understand it would not be by allowing him to lecture her. She held up a hand just as he drew breath to speak. "I know you don't like the organisation, but its different here, small and practical, we are more peacekeepers than defence specialists." Rose went on to explain that they seemed to have a far higher exposure to alien visitors in this universe, and had turned torchwood into a UN of sorts, dealing with dangerous aliens and trouble makers whilst at the same time opening up communication and trade routes. Of course, they kept a tight rein on alien tech, their motto being that if human scientists or engineers can't make it yet, or even understand it, they don't get to play.
Eventually the tension in the doctors body language began to fade, he began to look a little more convinced, it helped that Rose promised that travelling was a big part of the job so they would have to do lots of that. From there Rose went on to explain that she was a commanding officer at Torchwood, and would create him a position, she also gave him a brief explanation of how she had managed to hop universes back to him. Though he noticed that she skimmed over the time they had been apart.
"Doctor, you said, on that god awful beach, that we could grow old together..." she trailed off, not really knowing what she was asking, or where she was going. He sat up then, turning to face her "Rose." He pulled her to him, his hand on the back of her head and kissed her, softly and sweetly, so gently it brought tears to her eyes. Pulling her into his body, wrapping his arms around her, he felt her sink into the kiss, opening her mouth under his. He took the invitation, feeling the drowning desire consume reasonable thought. Her tongue met his as her hands slid into his hair and they both groaned, as though the noise was echoed in each other's throats. Rose was pushing her body closer and closer to his, feeling as though being inside his skin wouldn't be close enough for her. She felt her heart skip a beat then kick up into overtime when he left her mouth to kiss and nip down her neck. Her whole body was on fire, ignited by his hands and mouth touching her in ways she thought she would only ever dream. She gasped as he bit gently at the curve where shoulder becomes neck, and he smiled against her skin. It was the doctors turn to gasp when rose used her handle on his hair to bring his lips back to hers. Finally breaking for breath, he whispered against her lips looking into blue green eyes, so close they were blurred, he smiled "forever," he whispered it tugging her even closer, "our whole lives, Rose Tyler." And the lust and romance, even love was suddenly laced with just a touch of doubt.
The moment was broken by the ring of the phone over the intercom, rose pulled away from the Doctor slightly, "Answer" her mother's shrill voice came spilling into the open space, ranting about alien men withholding information, having acknowledged her, and begun to explain her way out of the telling off she was getting. She turned to look into the Doctors eyes, he was smiling, the anger had melted away, replaced with a replete smile. She winked and smiled back, despite herself, before padding through to the kitchen still talking at her mother, dressing gown in disarray. This, she decided, was a very dangerous game
