The Doctor was unconscious in her arms
The Doctor was unconscious in her arms. He was really only asleep but he'd drifted off so suddenly that Rose equated it with unconsciousness all the same. He'd been unconscious many times over the past while and she rather preferred the idea that this sleep was taken in her arms whist she sat against a tree. An interesting tree with purple, weeping willow-esque leaves in fact which provided more than adequate shade. The Doctor had not seen sunlight in far too long and being directly under it proved highly uncomfortable.
Rose had led him toward this tree as soon as she'd spotted it. Or really he'd led her. It had been two days and all of her wounds were mostly healed but her leg was still refusing to support her weight. Walking with a limp proved both frustrating and tiring so the Doctor had been quick to offer his arm, despite the fact that it still seemed that a swift breeze would blow him over and he himself could barely walk a straight line without assistance. Martha said his sense of direction would be off for a little while yet.
"You're still here."
Rose looked down at the man, thinking to herself that he looked impossibly adorable gazing up at her with those huge brown eyes and that awestruck expression on his face. He looked simultaneously like a child regarding its mother and like a penitent man looking up to his god. She smiled and leaned down to kiss him. "Still here," she whispered against his lips. "Not leaving you again."
The Doctor hummed contentedly and he shut his eyes again. "Good," he murmured. He shifted just so his ear was over her heart and Rose hugged him closer, resting her cheek against the top of his head. "You know this wasn't the reunion I was hoping for," he said after a long and comfortable silence.
Rose raised an eyebrow. She looked out toward the vast expanse of green fields before them and back at him. "What on Earth were you expecting then?"
"Well I wasn't really expecting anything," the Doctor confessed. "Hopes and expectations are two completely different things. What I'd hoped, Rose Tyler, was something a little more…active."
Rose smirked. "Ah. You were expecting some sort of bedroom Olympics then?"
The Doctor blushed. "Well not right away!" he sputtered. "I mean…um…oh dear…" He was trying to backtrack but it just wasn't working, yet it was somehow endearing.
Rose chuckled and shoved him gently so he was lying on his back beside her. He stared at her like a kicked puppy but she thought nothing of it, she was going to wipe that expression right off his face. She had managed to straddle the Doctor when that plan came to a halt when a spasm rocked through her injured leg. She scrambled off of him, clutching the leg as though it were being sawed off. The Doctor sat bolt upright and tried to get to her but fell back onto the blanket almost immediately, eyes shut tight but still facing Rose. He'd moved too fast and he still got dizzy far too easily, she noted in some back part of her mind that wasn't focused on the pain.
"You alright?" Rose asked through clenched teeth.
He cracked one eye open and cautiously nodded after a moment. "You?"
"It'll stop any second now." Rose slammed her eyes shut and turned her attention back to riding out the pain. Martha had said everything was healing nicely, her leg would be itself soon enough and Rose knew she was quite lucky to have escaped with only this. Moments like this one, however, made her think that that time couldn't come soon enough. Soon enough, though, she felt the muscles unclench and she relaxed her grip on the leg. "I see what you mean now," she sighed as the Doctor pulled her cautiously close to him.
"What?"
"Not the ideal reunion."
"Well," he chuckled. "I've been told anticipation is a good thing."
Rose's answering chuckle was muffled against his shirt so she shifted a bit further, carefully, back so she could have a proper face to face conversation with him. The Doctor looked down at her leg, studied it as if it were a complex problem and then shook his head at her. "Rose Tyler, how in the universe did you manage to carry me with your leg mangled that badly?"
"I have no idea," she laughed. "I probably had so much adrenaline pumping through me that it could have been a tonne of bricks on my back and I still wouldn't have been bothered. Besides," she reached out to touch his cheek. "It was that or let them have you, and I wasn't about to have any of that."
"None of you were," he whispered, his eyes fixed on her.
Rose shook her head. "Nope," she pronounced, popping the p in a perfect imitation of his voice. The Doctor turned his face to kiss her palm and he whispered his thanks. Rose nodded in return and carefully rolled onto her back. They said nothing for a while, just staring up at the shelter of the tree above them and the skies they would soon be returning to together. Rose was reminded strongly of their trip to New Earth when she returned her gaze to the Doctor. It was a similar study here as it had been there: marking differences and similarities against the man she had previously known. She'd probably get a better result once he was a bit better, she decided. She liked to think that the tiredness about him and the shadows in his eyes were mostly because of what he'd recently been through and not anything else.
"How long has it been for you?" he asked suddenly, his comment addressed her shoulder. "Not that it matters," he added quickly when Rose didn't answer right away and grabbed her hand. She silenced him before he could babble further and told him.
"Six years," she said quickly, hopefully not too quickly. She didn't want him to think she was ashamed.
The Doctor blinked at her. "Two for me," he answered before Rose could ask. "Six years, Rose Tyler, really?"
"Did I age really, really well or something?"
"No, no – I mean yes, you look lovely. Simply lovely!" He took a moment to collect his thoughts; Rose knew he was tired whenever that happened. "What I mean to say is," he said, "that I could tell it had been longer for you, it's in the eyes it's always in the eyes. I just had, well, hoped that it hadn't been quite so long." He reached out with his free hand to touch her face, his face falling into a sullen expression. "I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry."
Rose rolled her eyes and batted his hand away. "Don't be daft, it wasn't your fault. I'm the one who let go of that stupid lever remember?"
"I couldn't reach you."
"Well if you'd moved you would have been sucked into the Void and I'd rather have been stuck in the parallel world knowing you were alive than being stuck there knowing you were stuck somewhere far worse." Rose didn't want to have this fight. What had happened had happened and there was nothing either of them could do about it now.
The Doctor seemed to agree with her line of thinking "Oh I don't know about that," he countered. "You managed to break a hole into this world easily enough without bringing about the end of two universes." He was grinning at her and his eyes were dancing with amusement, but there was seriousness in his voice. "If anyone could get me out of there it would be you."
"And I would have tried," Rose said in the same tone. "Don't think I wouldn't have done." It was true. Powerless as she might have felt, she would have tried as tirelessly to find away back as she had to find her way back home.
The Doctor squeezed her hand; Rose had forgotten they'd still been holding hands. "Wouldn't dare think otherwise," he assured her. "Now tell me, Rose Tyler, how you managed to get back over here. Oh! And do tell me about your life in the other universe. How was Torchwood? How's Mickey the Idiot? How's Jackie and the baby! How—what?!"
Rose was laughing now. Long, loud and hard. The Doctor arched an eyebrow at her as he patiently waited for her to finish. "Oh, some things never change," she said breathlessly.
The Doctor looked at her expectantly. Rose refrained from rolling her eyes again, she didn't want a headache. "Are you going to stay awake for all this or are you going to drop off in the middle?"
One glare answered that question and she fell easily into the narrative of her life after Canary Wharf. She told him all about her job, all the wonderful things she'd seen, all the things she'd done. He'd commented on a lot of it, pointing out the differences between what he'd seen in this universe. He'd been a bit put out at the idea that there were no Time Lords at all in this universe; Rose said that it was simply his ego talking.
"You're lucky I'm too tired to make you regret saying that."
"You're lucky I'm too tired to point out that that's not exactly a threat. Now, as I was saying…"
Rose finished up her tale with the dirt on Mickey (married with a son now) and Jackie (hands full with the terror that were the Tyler twins) and the Doctor had remained awake for the entire time. "Was it a good life?" he asked her when he was sure she'd finished.
"It was fantastic," she said honestly. "Something was always missing though," she added pointedly. "I think it's all fixed now." She smiled brightly at him and was glad to see that mischievous smirk cross his face. She hadn't seen it in so long. "So, you've got to fill me in now! Tell me how you met the others. Donna mentioned something about you ruining her wedding."
"It wasn't like that!" The Doctor protested. "Wasn't like it was intentional or anything. Did her a favour in the end! "
"Explain it to me then."
The Doctor did just that. His tale was just as animated and wonderful as her own but she could tell he was leaving a few things out. Not totally, just fudging exactly how hard some things were and skipping over details in some instances. She had done very much the same thing in her own adventures. So, Rose knew that nothing would come of forcing it. They'd ask each other for full details one day and one day they'd both be ready to tell. She hoped that he'd tell her or one of the others about his ordeal sooner rather than later, but, again, she didn't want to force it. She settled for squeezing his hand and saying "I'm glad you found friends. The last thing I wanted was for you to be alone."
He squeezed back. "I'm so glad you're back." It was a near echo of a time he'd said something similar. A familiar warmth filled her and she gave him the same answer that she had in that dungeon.
"Me too." They exchanged a smile before the Doctor suddenly remembered that they had to get back to the hospital. Martha wanted to give them all a final once over before they were discharged. "Can't we just stay here a little longer?" she asked.
"We'll be late," the Doctor countered.
"They'll be expecting that," Rose observed. "We've both got mobility issues and we both tire easily. They'll expect us to be at least five minutes late."
"Five minutes you say?"
Rose held up her free hand and waggled her fingers and thumb at him.
"Well," the Doctor postulated as he leaned toward her. "I suppose five minutes won't hurt anyone."
"Not at all," Rose agreed just before their lips met.