"So…what are you going to do now?" Pointless question, really, Rose thinks. Whatever he does, she's going with him, so it doesn't make much difference. "Stay behind, or come back with me?"
"What do you think?" The Doctor winks at her and flashes her his biggest grin. Around them, Jackie, Pete and Mickey are getting the last bits into the car and belting up, and there isn't really much time to think about it anyway. They're sat on the doorstep nearby, Rose's head resting on the Doctor's shoulder as he plays with the piece of blue wood he found this morning.
"What're you gonna do with that?"
He
sighs deeply.
"No idea. I was thinking I could bury it
somewhere. Plant a tree." He grins again. "Hold on…where am I
going to bury it anyway? I don't even have a home to go to."
This gets nothing but a loud tutting sound from next to him. "Idiot. Course you do. Pete's house is huge, you know. Tons of room. And me, of course." Rose sticks her tongue out at him, blushing slightly.
"I don't think your mum would like that."
"Tough luck."
-
"Rose? Wake up, Rose, we're on the ferry."
Best sleep she's had in three months or more, and the Doctor's poking her to death. Typical. "Sod off."
"You can't stay down here in the car."
"I was having the best dream." She sits up slowly, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "You and me were-"
"What?"
"Never
mind," she shrugs, turning red again and hurrying out of the car.
The Doctor just grins, mind going into overdrive as he follows her up
the steps into the top of the boat.
What comes next, however, he's
totally unprepared for.
One second, Rose is there. The next, she's vanished. Right there, in front of him, on the stairs.
"Rose? ROSE!"
All hell's breaking loose on the deck as he catches up with the others. Mickey looks terrified, Pete's gone off searching, and the Doctor's left with Jackie, who looks nothing short of fatally angry.
"What the Christ's happened now? I tell you, every time you come along, something happens to her! What is it with you?"
"I don't know, honestly! One minute she was there, and the next…shit!" The Doctor stops mid-sentence and stares, dumbfounded, across the bar nearby. Rose, shaken up and looking somewhat the worse for wear, is sprawled across the bar, broken glasses everywhere and there's people screaming.
"What the Hell just happened?" She grabs the Doctor's hand as he pulls her from the bar, carefully avoiding the glass shards, and checks her over in a corner with the sonic screwdriver. Jackie rushes over and the other two men hurry through a door nearby, obviously having heard the commotion, and for the second time in two days, Rose finds herself unable to get answers from anyone as they all fuss around her.
"Where were you?" he asks, as he pulls her into the nearest ladies' room, closely followed by family.
"On the stairs. I was on the stairs, going up, and then…then there was this rushing noise, and I was…somewhere else," she finishes lamely, a dazed look in her eyes. "A church? Must've been, 'cause bells were ringing, and there was some guy in a dress outside."
"Right…" mutters the Doctor, confusion written all over his face. "Because, according to this," he looks at the screwdriver, "you've just come back from around five years in your future."
