The moment Jackie reached the bottom of the stairs in her building, she noticed the TARDIS parked just outside. Good, she thought, I don't wanna be racing around everywhere like a lunatic, looking for them. If they're actually in there, anyway. She advanced on the TARDIS slowly – Jackie may have set foot in it a number of times, but it never got any less creepy. Bigger on the inside, how ridiculous…
Presently a short dumpy man strolled past, and Jackie instantly pretended to be leaning casually against the TARDIS as if having a rest. Hanging around a police box asking to be let in would look rather suspicious… As soon as the man was gone, she quickly raised her fist and knocked loudly three times on the big blue doors.
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"Are you gonna check my head?"
"Yup."
"How?"
The Doctor ignored her. He frowned and glanced around, as if looking for something. It seemed he couldn't find it, so he rummaged around in his pockets, and suddenly his face lit up. "Gotcha!" He held it out in the palm of his hand.
Rose peered at it closely. The gadget was silver and slightly scratched, and vaguely the size and shape of a small hair clip. It didn't seem to resemble anything she'd previously seen in a Doctor's surgery or at the hospital, which made her suspect it was very much 'alien'. But then again, most things with the Doctor were.
"OK," the Doctor said slowly. "I'll spare you the scientific explanation, but basically this goes in your hair and allows me to see most things inside your head – so I'll be able to see if anything's malfunctioning, etc etc…" he trailed off, and gave another grin. "Ooh, I'm very clever, aren't I, Rose? Tell me I'm a genius."
"You don't need anyone to tell ya that, you already seem pretty convinced," grinned Rose. "So what do I do – just put it in my hair like a hair slide or something?"
"Yup!" the Doctor said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "And I should get the readings on the monitor. But it's a bit tricky to get in your hair – it doesn't like to stay in."
"I'll be fine. Gimme." Rose held out her hand, and the Doctor handed the gadget over.
Several minutes later, and after five failed attempts, Rose gave up. She sighed exasperatedly. "Argh! This thing is impossible!"
The Doctor grinned at her frustration. "I'll have a go, if you want."
Rose looked taken aback. "Oh…alright."
The Doctor took the gadget back off her, and moved round to her side. He paused for a split second, and with hesitant yet gentle fingers, pushed Rose's hair back behind her ear. The back of his hand came to rest on her cheek, and he stroked it gently with his thumb without realising what he was doing. Rose couldn't suppress a shiver, and the Doctor seemed to come to his senses. He whipped his hand away, and could feel the heat rushing to his face. Why had he done that? Why hadn't he controlled himself?
He dared not look at Rose for a few seconds, preferring to focus on the console chair. He felt horrified in case he had given himself away. After a moment he chanced a glance at Rose, and was slightly relieved to see that she was also looking nervously in another direction. However, she didn't look horrified – her expression was quite hard to read.
After a few more moments silence, the Doctor decided to try and act as if everything was fine, hoping this would relax the atmosphere a bit and bring things back to normal. He couldn't think of anything else to do. Taking a deep breath, he reached up to Rose's hair again nervously. Rose jumped slightly at his touch, but soon relaxed. After a few seconds, the Doctor's deft fingers meant the gadget was firmly in place. The Doctor's hand dropped back limply to his side.
Rose felt her head. "Ooh! Well done! Better than I could do."
"Just call me Dr Doctor." the Doctor remarked, attempting to give her a confident grin. Rose suddenly turned to him and fixed him with an innocent but puzzled gaze, her eyes boring into his. It was as if she was trying to read his thoughts, to try and understand what was going through his mind. The Doctor found this level of intimacy uncomfortable after what had just happened, so he looked away and turned to the monitor, where complicated shapes were beginning to emerge.
"Aha! We're in business!" the Doctor yelled. "Just keep that thing in your hair while I read the monitor, should only take a minute or so." He kept his back to Rose.
Rose frowned at the back of his head, but didn't say anything except "Alright". The Doctor set to work on the console, frowning in concentration, occasionally pressing a button or tapping the screen. Rose peered over his shoulder. The monitor was a chaotic confusion of different shapes and lines overlapping each other. It was quite arty, but it made no sense to Rose. The Doctor seemed to understand it perfectly, though.
"Hmm. Hmm. Hmm…" The Doctor announced quietly after a few minutes.
"And hmm to you too… what does it say?"
"Not sure."
"Eh? Gadget failed ya again, has it?"
The Doctor shook his head. "Everything's working fine. There's a block – something's stopping me getting the information I need. And I can't get past it – which is saying something, considering I'm very very clever," he added, without a trace of cockiness.
"But – what could be blocking it?"
The Doctor shook his head. "I have no idea…" He picked up a thin piece of what looked like wire. "I'll try checking your stomach, see if we have any more luck."
"And then we're done, yeah? I really need to get back to Mum, she'll be going spare."
"Yup, last thing, promise." He paused. "You erm… you need to put this round your waist, like a belt."
Rose nodded. "Is this a bit easier than the hair clip thingy?"
The Doctor grinned. "Oh, we're back to 'thingy' again, are we?"
"Well, what's it actually called?"
"A bidax."
Rose wrinkled her nose. "Mmm. Maybe 'thingy' is better… anyway, let me try this belt – how does it work?" She fiddled around for a second, but seemed unable to clip the wire in place. She glanced up at the Doctor. "Can you help me again?" she asked, a nervous smile playing on her lips.
The Doctor tried to act nonchalant. "You're not very good with this stuff, are you? Stand up, then." Rose stood up and moved closer to him, handing him the wire. The Doctor fumbled slightly with it, then leant towards Rose and fed the wire round her waist. He purposely didn't look at her, and tried to think of very unpleasant things to cancel out the overwhelming emotion he knew he really shouldn't be feeling… He couldn't help noticing that the T-shirt Rose was wearing was fairly short, showing her waist slightly, and his fingers accidentally brushed lightly against her skin as he clipped the wire belt into place.
"Right, all done." The Doctor said in a slightly higher voice than usual. Rose cleared her own throat. She looked very flushed. She opened her mouth hesitantly, paused, and then closed it again, before opening it and closing it a second time.
The Doctor couldn't help but laugh. "Have you taken goldfish lessons, or does it come naturally?" Rose tried to frown, but found she couldn't – his laugh was infectious. This considerably lightened the mood, and they both felt slightly more relaxed again. The Doctor looked as if he wanted to say something too, but before he could even open his mouth, there were three loud knocks on the door.