Chapter Eight

Rose sat at the kitchen table with Namoc, Jallel, and Shova. They had searched the house and found no one so they decided to relax for a moment. Namoc had searched through the cupboards and found something called Parselberry tea so he brewed up some for everyone. Rose licked her lips as she took a sip of it. It wasn't too bad, tasted a bit like blueberries. She sat and listened to the men as they discussed their next move.

"I think we should find some more of our comrades. Join up with them." Jallel was saying to Namoc. "Other units will be glad to have us. I'm sure they're gonna want all the help they can get."

"Yes, but what about Rose?" Namoc said gesturing to her. "We can't take her along. The units don't accept women."

"You don't have to worry about me. I'll be fine on my own." Rose said.

The three men stared at her in disbelief.

"Are you kidding? You're a woman and you're in the middle of a war zone. You're gonna get hurt!" Namoc said.

Rose eyed him.

"For your information, I've been in a lot worse situations than this. I may be a woman, but I can more than handle myself when it comes to fighting. Like I said, go ahead and leave if you want to, I'll be fine without ya."

The three men looked at each other.

"She might be telling the truth, Namoc." Shova said. "I mean she did walk through the battlefield without getting a scratch on her."

"Yeah, I guess so," Namoc said sighing. "Still, I'd feel better if she were away from here. We can take her west. There's no fighting there, then she can make her own way while we go back to the battle."

Jallel looked at Rose.

"How about it, Rose? Sound good?" he said.

"Sounds good to me." Rose replied.

"Then it's settled, after we get done with our tea, we'll head west and make sure you're away from the danger.

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Namoc looked out the front door. There was still fighting going on, but it seemed to be sporadic for the moment. He looked behind him at the others.

"I think we better move now. The fighting's not as intense at the moment." He said.

He stepped outside and held his blaster at the ready as the others came outside. All of them looked around and then they headed to the right. Rose followed behind them thankful at least that they were leading her away from the battle. Maybe when she got out where it was quiet, she would be able to come up with a plan to find the Doctor. As they walked along, the explosions went from being ear-splitting to being annoying to being background noise. The smoke the bombs gave off slowly dissipated the further away they got and Rose could finally smell the fresh air and see the suns clearly. She looked around and noticed that the countryside was pretty in the spots that hadn't been obliterated by the bombs. It would have been a very picturesque site if the blackened patches of grass and the craters and ruins hadn't marred the landscape. She shook her head sadly. She had no idea what the war was being fought over, but it was a shame they were destroying the lovely environment in the process.

They reached a hill and started to walk up it. As they neared the top, Namoc held out his hand in front of Rose.

"Wait, there's someone out there walking through the field. Wait here until we figure out who it is." He said to her.

Rose nodded and stopped. The three men drew their blasters and went the rest of the way up. She watched as they stood on top of the hill looking out at someone in the distance.

"YOU THERE!" Namoc screamed. "WHO ARE YOU? IDENTIFY YOURSELF!"

Rose's heart leapt into her throat when she heard,

"MY NAME IS THE DOCTOR. THIS IS MARTHA JONES AND DONNA NOBLE. WE ARE LOOKING FOR A FRIEND OF OURS---"

"DOCTOR!"

The three men jerked their heads around as Rose scrambled up the hill.

"DOCTOR, IT'S ME!" she screamed. "I'M HERE!"

"ROSE!" she heard him scream happily.

She reached the top of the hill and cried out with delight. A half-mile away, the Doctor stood in the field flanked on either side by Martha and Donna. Rose grinned when she heard the Doctor laugh insanely and begin to run towards her. Rose pushed past the bewildered men and ran down the hill stumbling halfway down in her eagerness to get to him. She caught herself and took off running again. As the men stood on the hill and the women stood in the field the two lovers ran straight at each other arms outstretched as if they were in a romantic movie. Rose's eyes misted over and she brushed her hand over her eyes so she could see clearly. The Doctor had the biggest, goofiest grin on his face and it made Rose's heart soar and made her run even faster. She sprinted trying to close the gap between them. Her arms were opened wide in anticipation and it seemed to her like it was taking forever to get to him. She openly wept when she heard the Doctor calling her name over and over. His voice never sounded so good. Her legs burned from the strain she was putting on them, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to reach him.

Then, suddenly, her foot hit a rock and she gasped as she began to stumble. She heard the Doctor yell out her name and then her body slammed into the ground knocking the wind out of her.

"Real smooth, Rose." She muttered as she tried to get to her feet. "How come that never happens in the movies?"

As she got to her hands and knees, she saw the Doctor run up and then she felt his arms around her waist.

"Rose?" he panted. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just mortified beyond all belief is all." Rose said sitting back in the grass.

She glanced at the Doctor who was trying his hardest not to laugh. His expression kept going back and forth between concern and amusement and Rose couldn't help but laugh at the odd faces he was making. The Doctor beamed at that and took her in his arms.

"Oh, Rose, my Rose." He murmured tightening his embrace around her. "At last I can hold you again. I never thought this day would come."

Rose smiled.

"Never say never ever." she murmured to him.

She leaned her head onto his shoulder and felt the Doctor put his head against the back of hers. He rubbed her back as the two of them held each other silently. The world around them fell away and Rose knew only the Doctor. She clung to him no longer caring that there was a war going on nearby. As far as she was concerned, a missile could hit them at that moment and she would die happy.

She felt the Doctor urging her to lean back up and she did. She stared at his face as he cupped her face with his hands. He chuckled softly as he picked specks of dirt out of the strands of her hair.

"Funny, when you see the lovers running towards each other in the movies, they always seem to have a clear path." He said, his eyes sparkling.

"Yeah, and of course I would try the same thing and have a big bleedin' rock directly in my path so I can trip and fall on my face and look like the biggest arse in the universe." Rose replied.

The Doctor chuckled. He traced her lips with the pads of his fingers and then slowly he leaned in for a kiss. It started out chaste and then slowly it became more and more passionate until the two of them were snogging each other's brains out. As they kissed, they were unaware that both sides were walking towards them. The Doctor was oblivious to everything as he ran his hands over every inch of Rose reacquainting himself with the feel of her body. By the time the others reached them, the two were in the throes of ecstasy and had completely lost all sense of place and time. The reverie wasn't broken until Rose heard Namoc say,

"I take it this is the Doctor chap you were looking for?"

Rose and the Doctor pulled away from each other. Their faces reddened when they saw a very fascinated audience now surrounded them on all sides. The Doctor tried to compose himself as Donna and Martha snickered.

"I'm sorry, you are?" he said trying to reassert his authority over the situation.

"My name is Namoc. My friends, Jallel and Shova and I were fighting when Rose stumbled into our path. We were taking her to safety when she found you." He said to the Doctor.

"Well, I thank you for that. If you hadn't done that, It might have been a long time before I found her." The Doctor said smiling at him.

"I take it you two are very close then." Namoc said.

"Yes, we are." The Doctor said.

He glanced at Rose and frowned when he noticed she was staring past him. He followed his gaze and saw she was looking at Martha and Donna with an odd look on her face. He cleared his throat.

"Ah, Rose, allow me to introduce Donna Noble and Martha Jones, my traveling companions." He said gesturing to them.

Donna and Martha smiled and waved, but Rose only gave them a polite nod. She looked at the Doctor and he frowned when he noticed the hurt in her eyes.

"Rose, what is it?" he muttered.

"Can I talk to you for a moment in private, please?" Rose asked.

"Um, sure." The Doctor said shrugging.

He helped her to her feet as he stood up. Rose took his hand and led him away from the crowd. When they were out of earshot, Rose stopped him and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Who are they?" she said.

"Who?"

"Donna and Martha."

"I told you, they're my companions." The Doctor said.

His brow furrowed when he noticed the tears coming to Rose's eyes.

"Rose, what is it?" he said softly as he put a hand on her arm.

"You forgot about me." She said softly.

"What? No, I didn't." the Doctor said, shocked.

"What would have happened if I had never come back? Would you have replaced me with one of them?"

The Doctor's mouth dropped open.

"No!" he said gripping both arms. "Rose, I love you and only you. Martha and Donna are just friends, nothing more. Just because I was traveling with others didn't mean I forgot about you and replaced you in my hearts. I never stopped looking for a way to get you back. You are the one I want. Didn't the snog prove that just now?"

Rose brushed a tear away and nodded. The Doctor gathered into his arms.

"You're not going to be replaced, my angel." He murmured in her ear. "I only have eyes for you. There's no reason to be scared of them. They aren't competition. Neither one of them are interested in me. Please, give them a chance. I think you'll get along great with them. Come on, don't you want a couple of girls you can talk girl talk with in the TARDIS? I mean, you did ask me to invite Sarah Jane after you got to know her, so you apparently don't have objections to other women traveling with us."

He stroked her hair.

"I'm so glad you're back, my Rose. Words can't describe the level of happiness I feel at having you near me again. I swear my hearts are about ready to explode with joy. My little plus one is here with me at last."

He kissed the top of her head.

"So, are you ready for more adventures with me?"

"Hell yeah." Rose said into his shoulder.

The Doctor chuckled and gazed at her adoringly as Rose turned her head and looked up at him.

"I really think you'll like Martha and Donna." He said to her. "Martha is studying to be a doctor, I think she has a year left before she gets her degree. And Donna…"

He thought a moment.

"Well, Donna kinda grows on you, let's put it that way. Once you get to know her and get past her brusque way of speaking, she's really a nice woman. Both of them were like you, Rose, just a couple of ordinary women who got caught up in a situation with me and ended up helping me out. I invited them to come along same as I did with you. But, like I said, they are friends, not replacements. So, can I trust you to be civil to them? Because I really don't want to fly the TARDIS while there's an enormous catfight going on in the console room."

"I can get along with them." Rose said.

"Good. I'm glad to hear it. We are all civilized adults flying in the TARDIS, not hillbilly trailer trash on the Jerry Springer show."

Rose giggled at that.

"That would be an interesting topic though. My alien lover is dating two women. Sounds like a typical Jerry Springer show."

"Yeah, it does." The Doctor said nodding. "But, don't get any ideas about that and call up their studio to sign us up for a show, you hear me?"

"Yes, Doctor." Rose said with a twinkle in her eyes.

The Doctor gave her a peck on the lips. He looked over at the others who were standing beside one another watching them intently.

"Right, I think we've given them enough of a show. Let's go back and sort all this out so we can go home, shall we?"

"Home, I never thought I'd see it again. I can't wait to set foot in the TARDIS."

The Doctor smiled. He took Rose's hand and the two of them walked back towards the others.