"Shopping?" The look on the Doctor's face was one of abject horror.
"Yes, Doctor. Shopping. You know, where you go around to stores and exchange paper and round disks of metal for clothes that you need to wear..?" Rose said, feeling a headache coming on.
"But I have clothes!" the Doctor insisted.
"One blue suit and some of my Dad's old stuff that is too short for you are not clothes. If you're going to be a normal person from now on, you have to dress like one."
"But… but…" the Doctor cast around for an excuse. "But I don't have any money!" he said triumphantly.
Rose waved a credit card in front of his face.
"I have a job, remember? And my dad is one of the biggest millionaires in Europe. Money is no object."
The Doctor looked panicked.
"But Rose… I've been shopping with you before. You take ages."
"Well how else are you supposed to find anything good?" Rose asked, tucking an errant lock hair behind her ear.
The Doctor cast around for more excuses, and found none.
"Oh, alright…" he said reluctantly.
Rose smiled triumphantly, knowing she had won.
"Look on the bright side, Doctor. We can look for a long brown trench coat."
The Doctor looked cheered, as he took Rose's offered hand.
"Janis Joplin gave me that coat, you know. I didn't think much of it till this regeneration. Just sat in the back of the TARDIS wardrobe cuz I didn't much fancy wearing it. But there was something about this regeneration that wanted to wear it…"
Walking with his hand in hers, Rose smiled at his chatter.
--
"Did you buy out the entire store?" Pete asked, looking over the top of his book as the Doctor walked into the room, arms laden with bags.
"Feels like it," the Doctor grumbled, dumping his load on the sofa and going back for more.
Rose perched on the arm of the sofa, and laughed.
"Don't forget the bags in the back seat!" she called after him.
Pete raised an eyebrow.
"How much did this cost me?" he asked warily.
Rose shook her head.
"Out of my savings, Dad. Besides, he had nothing to start with. He needed everything. He only had 1 suit to start with."
"Are we starting a store?" Jackie asked, walking in to see a sea of multi-coloured bags on the sofa and spilling onto the floor. One-and-a-half year old Tony rested on her hip.
"Took the Doctor shopping," Rose explained.
Jackie seemed to understand at once.
"I wish you had let me come. That would have been a sight to see!"
"That's the reason we didn't let you come," the Doctor said, his arms full of bags again. "That's the last of them, Rose. Ones in the back seat included."
"Well you certainly bought the whole town, didn't you?" Jackie said, amused. She handed Tony to Rose. "Let's see them then."
Rose placed Tony on her lap, and kissed his downy, white-blond head.
"Hey sweetie," she crooned. "Were you good for Mummy today?"
Tony laughed, and gabbled baby talk.
"You show her," Rose said to the Doctor.
He gave her a long-suffering look, but reached for one of the bags, handing it to Jackie. Jackie inspected the contents carefully carefully.
"Suit. Suit. Suit. Really does he need fifty million brown/navy blue/gray/green suits?"
"Oy! I happen to look extremely handsome in suits!" The Doctor objected.
Jackie just rolled her eyes.
"Trainers. Dress shoes. More trainers. Same trainers in a different colour. Really, Rose, couldn't you stop him from buying all the same things in different colours? He needs variety."
The Doctor smirked.
"Actually, Jackie, it was her idea."
Jackie didn't respond. She had moved on to more bags.
"Various t-shirts. That's good, that is. Can be worn pretty much anywhere. Trousers. Jeans. Oh, you'll look a bit nice in those jeans." Holding them up.
The Doctor blushed crimson, and Rose hid her smiled behind her baby brother's head. Pete didn't even try to hide his amusement.
"Socks. Under things. Spaceship boxers? I didn't know they made those for adults."
The Doctor snatched them away from her, going even more red.
"Spring jacket. Good idea, that. Especially with all the rain we get here. Winter coat. Scarf… more scarf… blimey, does this scarf go on forever?" Jackie asked, as she continued to pull multi-coloured scarf out of the bag. "That'll fall down to your knees, that will," she commented.
The Doctor smirked.
"I know."
"Jumper. Jumper. Another Jumper. Horrible knitted Jumper. Really, Rose. How could you let him buy that? Collared shirt. Several collared shirts. More t-shirts. Pajamas. Dressing gown. And what's in that little bag?"
But the Doctor had already snatched that up.
"It's nothing," he mumbled.
Jackie looked less than impressed.
"Oh, why don't you just tell her?" Rose asked, grinning from ear to ear.
"No! Rose Tyler, let me preserve a scrap of my dignity."
"Rose? What is it?" asked Jackie suspiciously.
"Rose! Don't you dare!" the Doctor cautioned.
"I can't help it, Doctor. It's hair gel," Rose said, her voice shaking with suppressed laughter.
"Well I don't have the stuff I had in the TARDIS any more," the Doctor said shamefacedly.
Pete surveyed him with a critical eye.
"Now there's one mystery of the universe solved. I always wondered how you got your hair to stay up like that," he said.
Rose and her mother caught each other's eyes, and burst out laughing.
Pete scowled, and hunched over his book.
"Just cuz I haven't got any hair left doesn't mean I can't look at other peoples. You cruel women."
--
"Now, Sir, if you will tell me your real name, we can get this done quicker, and there'll be no more monkeyshine."
The Doctor growled with impatience.
"John Smith. That's my real name. Dr. John Smith."
"Sir, this is your last warning," the Police man said, sounding terribly annoyed.
Something inside the Doctor snapped. He had had a long and tiring day, and he still wasn't used to the limitations of the human body, and now this was happening.
"John Smith!! What is the matter with you stupid apes? Haven't you got anything between your ears? Not able to comprehend simple speech? Want me to say it in German? What about Klingon? Do you really find it so hard to believe that someone actually might be called John Smith?!" The Doctor was yelling now.
"Right, you! We're taking you to lock-up tonight to cool your temper, and charging you with obstruction of the law tomorrow, on top of your other charges!" the copper yelled back.
"I am not going with some PC Plod who thinks he can just come in and…"
"Don't you dare mock me! You're treading a very fine line here, Sir, and I suggest you…"
"EXCUSE ME!" Another voice cut through the din.
The Doctor swallowed his seething rage at the incompetence of Earth police men, and turned. He gulped when he saw who it was.
A squad of four people stood there, dressed in black non-descript clothing. They all had no-nonsense looks about them, including the one who had spoken. Rose.
"We'll take it from here, officer," she said coolly.
"And just who are you?" the police officer demanded, his face still red with anger.
A man to Rose's left flashed a badge. His dark hair was shoulder length, and his face was chiseled and classically handsome.
"Torchwood. We'll take it from here."
The officer took a deep breath.
"Fine. Take him. He's a nuisance anyways."
"Come with us," the woman on Rose's right said to the Doctor. He followed them as they walked out of the Police station, and into a black non-descript van.
"Rose…" the Doctor started.
Rose held up her hand to silence him.
"I don't even want to here it."
"But…"
"Not now Doctor." She said, her voice dangerously quiet.
The dark haired man scowled at Rose as he slid into the driver's seat of the van.
"I don't see how bailing your boyfriend out was such an emergency, Tyler," he said.
"Yeah, well it was," Rose answered, curtly.
"It was a misuse of our authority," the woman said, as she sat in the back next to the Doctor.
"Do you know what would have happened if they had held him? If they had taken even 1 drop of his blood as a sample, or taken his fingerprints? The history of medicine would have been changed."
"It wouldn't have been that big of a deal. Not any more," the Doctor muttered under his breath.
"I will deal with you later," Rose said to him shortly.
The woman beside the Doctor allowed her eyes to go wide.
"Ouch," she whispered to him.
The Doctor scowled, and stared stormily out the window.
The man on the other side of the woman shrugged.
"I don't see why we had to do that, but you said it was important, Rose, and we do owe you."
"Thank you. Tom," Rose said.
There was an uneasy silence in the van until it pulled up to the gated of Tyler Mansion.
"Next time your boyfriend gets left in jail, got that Tyler?" the driver asked.
"Whatever, Marks," Rose said, rolling her eyes.
"And don't forget you owe me big."
"Like you would ever let me forget."
Rose got out of the car, and motioned for the Doctor to do the same. Her jaw was set, meaning she was holding her anger in.
"He was a bit snippy," the Doctor commented, shoving his hands into the pockets of his new suit jacket as the van roared off.
"He has a right to be. I just misused the authority of Torchwood to get you out of petty charges," Rose said, the colour rising in her cheeks. She turned on him, glaring fiercely. "What did you think you were doing?! Wandering off like that. Getting in a fight…? What are you, fifteen? Sometimes I think you're a bloody teenager! Did your brain disappear with your other heart? Didn't you realize the trouble you might have started?!" she asked.
"Yes, I had an idea. But I've been cooped up in that house for a week now, while you go swanning off to work. For Torchwood! You work for bloody Torchwood! And I'm bored out of my mind, contemplating my life stuck forever on this wretched planet. I just went for a little walk. A stroll, that's all. I trust that was allowed. Or did I have to ask permission first?" the Doctor asked sarcastically.
"Of course you didn't have to ask permission. But you could have avoided getting picked up by the police, couldn't you?" Rose shot back.
"But I couldn't have avoided the two men who started the fight with me!"
"You were in a pub! What were you doing in a pub in the first place?" Rose demanded.
"Drinking. That's what you do in a pub, isn't it?"
"Why were you drinking. You don't drink. Ever. Not even at Christmas. And you don't get drunk. But those men do, and they were drunk enough to start a fight over nothing."
"The one took a swing at me!" the Doctor protested.
"So you beat them to a bloody pulp?!" Rose shrieked.
"Yes! Ok, yes I did. I've had enough of being a pacifist, and taking everything! He swung at me, and I just got fed up with taking everything. I hit back!"
"Self defense is one thing, but beating two men senseless is another!" Rose yelled.
"I know!" The Doctor yelled back. Then, more softly, "I know. I know it was stupid, Rose. I should have just walked away. But I was so angry at everything." Just as suddenly as his anger had come on in that pub, it vanished, leaving him exhausted and weak.
"Oh, Doctor," The disappointment in Rose's eyes was almost too much to bear. He turned away.
"He was right when he said I was broken," he said.
"Doctor. Look at me." the Doctor faced Rose once again.
"You are not broken. You're just… full of anger. Everyone gets like that. But you can't go around beating people whenever you like. Marks is right, I can't be there to bail you out every single time."
"I know," the Doctor said. He felt deflated and weary.
"Come here." Rose took him in her arms, and they held each other tightly. "I know this has been hard for you, staying in the house all the time," she said. "And on top of that you've had to adjust to having just one heart, and having to sleep at normal times, and eat regularly. But we're going to pull through this, yeah?"
She pulled away, and searched his face for confirmation.
He nodded.
"Yeah. We're going to pull through this."
"Good. Dad's been asking for a place for you at Torchwood. And before you say anything, it's not like it was in the other universe. It's good. You have to take my word on that. You could have a job, which would keep you out of the house. And it could even be in something you like, like engineering. You can upstage all the Torchwood people by being brilliant."
The Doctor pulled her in and held her, resting his cheek on the top of her head.
"Why do you even put up with me?" he asked tiredly.
"Because," Rose answered. "No matter how dumb you act, or how many stupid things you do, I love you. And that means I'm here for you, no matter what."
The Doctor sighed.
"Forgive me?"
"Yeah."
They held each other in silence. A thought came to the Doctor suddenly.
"You know, PC Plod was right."
"About what?" Rose asked.
"Nobody is going to believe I'm John Smith if I don't have any paperwork to back myself up."
Rose pulled away from him, her face thoughtful.
"Hmmm… paperwork. Like a birth certificate and stuff?"
"Yeah. And if I'm going to be a doctor, I have to be a doctor in something. So I need to have gone to school. I need documents."
A smile suddenly appeared on Rose's face.
"I know just the person to get them from. I'm calling in another favour."
She pulled her mobile out of her pocket and dialed.
"Suzy? Hi. It's me, Rose. I need to invent a person…."
Author's Note: I'm not sure how that fight turned out. It went in a different direction than I thought it would. The line about the Doctor being a teenager was spurred by a conversation I had with a friend, where she compared this Human Doctor to a teenager in his actions and uncertainty about things. I guess the idea of a teen!Doctor stuck with me.
It made me laugh, the amount of people who assured me I wasn't the only one to watch that kiss over and over. That makes me feel better, actually… And guess what I found out? There's an extended kiss scene from Confidential that someone posted on Youtube. It's much longer, and more involved. Much more like I pictured a kiss between Rose and the Doctor would be like.. Should have used that for the scene! I am such a fangirl…
31. That's how many reviews I got for chapter 2. 31!! I have never in my life had so many reviews for a single chapter. It totally blew me away! You guys are so fantastic! I was planning on putting this story on hold for a bit while I finished something else, but your reviews have spurred me on to write more as fast as I can. Thank you SO much to everyone who reviewed, you really made my day!