Author's Note: I hope that everyone had a pleasant Valentine's Day! And that you were more productive then me, whom hid under the covers and caught up on a lot of missing sleep. Sundays in general kind of go like that now days. Wish I had more energy than I do, but that would probably be solved with working shorter weeks. Oh well, still finding time to write and watch a few episodes of Doctor Who before I collapse. I'm actually on season 4 now, and love Donna to bits. Might give a shot at writing Donna/Ten next. Enjoy.
Also, I'm thinking about changing the summery to the story. I just happen to hate writing them and just know I want it to change. Life is hard when your frustrated for the reason of being frustrated.
The next time Rose saw the Doctor was 14 days after the last time, and it was nearly 3 in the morning; compared to being passable breakfast time. Her mother was out for the night with a boyfriend that she had been seeing for apparently the better part of a year. Rose had been heading home after a night of working, having picked up a job serving drinks at a raunchy club. Not the job she was proudest of having, but she had needed something to do with her time. Besides, she wasn't up on stage taking her clothes off, even though she could have been making a lot more money that way. This job was just a stepping stone, until she found something respectable.
The Doctor was leaning against the door to the flat, looking much better than when she had last seen him. He looked completely out of place, twiddling his thumbs and waiting outside, like he was waiting for his lost love to come back to him. Or better yet, like he hadn't gotten himself locked out after a fight with his woman. Odd thought that Rose never really wanted to return to ever again.
He perked up when she finally came directly into his line of view, only to bug his eyes off in another direction when noticing her outfit. Rose felt the need to tug at her short outfit, but resisted it easily. She wasn't shy, and people had been staring and tugging at her all night already. She had started to get used to it, and had grown braver under the leering eyes of others.
Rose pulled her keys from a worn bag and gave the Doctor a small smile. "Why don't we just go inside; you picked the one night Mom decided to go out. Then again, you probably planned it that way." She gave him one of her tongue in her teeth smiles, and didn't catch the way his eyes tried to drink that motion in.
He followed her into the flat, close enough behind that she could feel him. It made her uncomfortable, after weeks of not seeing him and at the same time wishing he would just walk closer. Carve himself into her soul, or something drastic like that. Not that he hadn't done that already, as she was still thinking about where she should get Doctor tattooed onto her body, so she never forgot him. Not that she would tell that to him, mister high and mighty tended to be too smug as it was.
He wasn't really being smug today though; just quiet. At least the wasn't injured this time, which made his visit a little more of an actually visit compared to before. They remained quiet, like the two of them could both pretend to be comfortable in the silence between them. What was there left to say after everything that had happened?
Rose jumped when the Doctor swiped his hand forward to lightly dance across the bottom of her skirt, even let out a little bit of a yelp as she slapped the hand away. He flinched back upon contact as well, but his face and those familiar big ears of his gave nothing away. She hadn't even meant to hit his hand away, but had gotten used to doing that to the people whom just didn't get that workers weren't for touching. "Sorry, almost instinct after all these weeks." Rose kept her voice low and she probably could have explained it better, but it had been a long night and she was exhausted. Exhausted enough to miss his second flinch, which had entirely nothing to do with a slap to the fingers.
"I'm sorry that this is what your life has come to." His voice was rough, gravelly and those were the first words he had spoken since he had shown up. Rose would have loved for him to say something similar, like a hello. Instead, the almighty northern alien just had to piss her off. Her life wasn't great at the moment, but she was trying her best and was proud of herself for it!
Rose frowned at him, in attempt to stay away from straight out shouting at the man. Least he turn and walk out, doing something foolish like never coming back. "It's not exactly what I imaged, but it'll do for being the only one I've got." Rose was tired and apparently very irritable, but would never take it out on the Doctor. This situation just needed to be left alone and then they could just go back to pretending everything was alright. She was already getting to be quite good at that. "It's late and I'm fancying a cup of tea before bed. Care to join me?"
He looked even more distraught for a single moment, but nodded his head and gently took her hand none the less. She lead him to the kitchen, though he knew exactly where it was; made him tea exactly how he loved to drink it like she had been doing every time she made herself one for weeks. It hadn't been that long, both the time she had actually been with him and the time since she had left. That didn't mean that it didn't feel like a hole had formed in her heart. She would just have to work on not automatically making two cups of tea.
The whole time, the Doctor stood and just watched her bounce around, in her kitchen. This was all very domestic, but if Rose said something about that he would probably melt into the floor to get away, or something equally as amazingly strange. He accepted his tea, though never took his eyes off her, even as she turned her attention towards her teacup. It was nice, having those old and careful eyes on her after two weeks of just wondering if he was alright.
"Rose." He said her name, like it was the simplest thing in the universe, just like his motion of outing down his tea and reaching to her. "You look so tired." Like he was trying to understand that this was her life after him and she hadn't ended up being worshipped for all of eternity on some far off planet. She wasn't a goddess, Rose Tyler wasn't even a shop girl at the moment. She was a bar maid whom had to deal with people roughing around and feeling up; it was strange to have to wish to be a shop girl again.
She had never been good at not speaking her mind, one of the many things that always had her in trouble at school. One of the things that she could only hope the Doctor found endearing about her. "I feel tired, but I just got off work. Found a job in a bar, not the nicest thing in the world, but I needed something and there weren't many openings."
His hand stroked her cheek and Rose closed her eyes, if only to escape the sad look in her Doctors eyes. "You deserve so much better than this." He sounded so powerful in that moment, like it was a fact that people should kiss the ground she walked on. Okay, maybe it wasn't an appropriate moment to giggle, but she wasn't known for having much grace and that thought was just too funny. She opened her eyes, and he looked severely displeased, but at this time of night it served him right.
"Sorry for laughing, it's just that I don't really. Would if I had gotten my A-levels, but really with my qualifications the best I'm gonna do is a nice shop. It'll take some time for that to happen, and we all have to put up with things that aren't ideal to get to better things." Rose was just telling the truth, but the poor Doctor looked like he was going to have an aneurism if he scowled any harder. She wasn't sure what to say after that, but she grasped the hand still on her face. It was cold, frim and real; much better then she had been imagining for the last weeks.
They stayed like that for a good long moment, before he pulled away. Rose let him go; just like she now had practice in letting him go. "You should get some sleep, I don't want to keep you up any longer." He stated through gritted teeth, angry about something that Rose was too tired to think about. He was nearly out the door, and Rose was bringing the cups to the sink, when he turned around in a rush. The Doctor's intensity was Earth shaking on an off day, and when he was sure of himself nothing could stop him. One of the things that Rose had decided she lo-Very much liked about him.
He was back beside her, with that hand again tracing at her skin. Spinning her around so that her front was to his and in that moment she felt lost and found all at once. He placed his lips on her forehead, and curled an arm around waist. He held her for a long minute, and Rose had a hard time remembering how to breathe; let alone do anything in return. That might have been all for the best though, for it was over all too soon. He let her go and stepped away, but she took note that his eyes were lighter, and maybe even a little bit happier.
"I'll be back again tomorrow, when you've rested." She had a funny feeling that it wouldn't be tomorrow for him, but would take being able to see him again as soon as it was. Then again, she apparently had more responsibilities then she once had, or at least felt more responsible.
"I have to work again tomorrow night at 8, the stage needs cleaning and I wanted more hours." Rose had a feeling that she ruined whatever had just happened between the two of them, but it wasn't as though she had rejected him. Just had said the truth at what her life had become; a simple human trying to get by.
He was stressed for only a moment, before giving her a grin and one more kiss to the forehead. "I'll just have to be earlier. Don't worry about it, good with time, me." He accent got stronger when he was upset, but Rose wasn't going to point it out. That was one of the first things that she had noted about the Doctor.
She grinned back at him, and wondered if he could tell if hers was just as fake as his. Another kiss and then he was out of her door and life for apparently only a few hours. Her bed was extra soft that night, and she had pleasant, yet very confusing dreams of lips pressing to her head. Even in the dream, se couldn't figure out why he would kiss a simple ape such as herself.