I dedided that I am going to make this story a collection of one shots.
Title: Of Imposible Riddles
Summary: Rose just wants some peace and quiet. How can she make the Doctor stop talking long enough to get that?
Most days Rose didn't mind the Doctor's ability to talk for hours on end about nothing at all. Sometimes they would just sit in the control room of the TARDIS, and Rose would just listen to the Doctor talk about a planet or a species or a historical event. Rose once timed him, and he talked about the Renaissance for two straight hours. What made it more impressive was that he only stopped for breath once. He made full use of his respiratory bypass system in this body.
Today was a different matter though. Rose sat in the library, curled up in a chair. Open on her lap was the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield. After getting to actually meet him, Rose had taken a greater interest in reading his novels. She was perfectly content sitting there reading with a mug of tea on the table next to her. The only thing that lessened the experience was the Time Lord in the room that wouldn't stop talking.
"You know, minus the fact the Slitheen hate me, we should go back to Raxacoricofallapatorius. Did you know that they have a small banana plantation there? But then again, if I wanted to get some more bananas we should really go to Arxidone. In the fifty-fourth century they have the best bananas in the universe. Oh and while we're in the fifty-fourth century we should pop down Earth, one of the biggest music revivals ever goes on then. They play music all the way back from the twenty-first century." The Doctor finally took a pause. It was the first one he had taken in some time and Rose let out a sigh of relief. He had been going on for over an hour now, and it was getting very hard to read her book.
Taking the moment of silence, Rose decided that if she was ever going to finish her book, she had to make the Doctor stop talking. "Doctor," Rose chimed in before he could continue talking about whatever popped into his head. "I have a question for you." He glanced over at her and waited for her to ask her question. Rose's brain scrambled for a question that would take him a while to find an answer for. Her eyes darted over to a book that was sitting on the floor a little ways away.
"What's up Rose?" the Doctor asked.
A smirk pulled up on the corners of Rose's mouth. She hoped that this would work. "Well it's more of a riddle. It's an Earth riddle that I think you would like."
"What is it then?"
"How is a raven like a writing desk?"
"What?" The Doctor looked at Rose in confusion. "A raven and a writing desk?"
"Yep." With a thump, the Doctor sat down in a chair across from Rose. He was quietly mumbling to himself as he tried to figure out the riddle. With a smile, Rose returned to her book, thankful for the new silence.
Quite some time later Rose shut her book. The ending had been sweet, but just ever so slightly cliché. Rose didn't mind that though, she often enjoyed reading books with a happy ever after ending.
Rose was hardly able to believe that she had been able to finish her entire novel without being interrupted by the Doctor. When she looked over at his chair, Rose saw that the Doctor was still sitting there.
"Any luck with that riddle yet? It's taken you quite a while," Rose teased.
The Doctor looked up at her. For the first time since he regenerated, the Doctor was at a loss for words. Rose knew this and she grinned at him. "Practically unlimited knowledge of time and space, and I'm being stumped by an Earth riddle. All right Rose, I give up. You win. How is a raven like a writing desk?"
Fighting back the urge to laugh Rose picked up a book off the floor. She looked him in the eyes and with the most serious face she could muster pressed the book into his hands. Leaning over Rose whispered in his ear, "I have no idea."
She stood straight and walked out of the library. Stunned speechless, the Doctor looked down at the book Rose handed him. In faded gold letters he was able to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.