Rose woke with a start.
"You alright?" the Doctor asked, leaning over her.
Rose nodded, shaking her head as if to clear the last scraps of sleep away.
"I had such a strange dream."
"Strange?"
Rose leaned her head onto the Doctor's shoulder.
"I dreamed I was walking in a wood. And I came to a stream and wanted to cross it. So I took my socks and shoes off, and was getting ready to wade across when a wolf stepped into my path. She wouldn't let me cross the stream."
Rose and the Doctor traded glances.
"Do you think…?" the Doctor asked.
"Nah," Rose answered. "It was just a dream."
They both smiled at each other.
A light above them flashed.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," said a crackling voice over the intercom. "Please remain seated and fasten your seatbelts. We will begin out descent shortly. The temperature in Athens is a balmy 25 degrees, with clear skies."
"We're landing soon," said Rose.
The Doctor nodded, stretching his long legs as best he could in the cramped space.
"This would be so much easier if we had a TARDIS."
"Someday," Rose said. "Now that we've actually planted the coral piece in the ground, it should grow faster, right?"
"It's actually growing very well," the Doctor replied. "It sprouted roots in only a few months. I wasn't expecting it to need to go into the ground for a year at least."
"And now that it's planted, when will we have a fully grown TARDIS?" Rose asked.
"That depends."
Rose rolled her eyes.
"Depends on what?"
"On how acidic the soil is, on how much sunshine it gets, on how often we put jalapeño peppers near the roots."
"I still can't believe our time machine eats peppers," Rose said.
"What? It reacts to the capsaicin!" the Doctor quickly leaped to the defense of his beloved ship. "It should take around 50 years to reach maturity."
"I thought you said 100 before," Rose said, surprised.
"I underestimated how it would react to the soil on earth. So I was off by a little. So sue me!"
"I should write this day on a calendar," Rose teased. "They day the Doctor admitted that he was wrong."
The Doctor grumbled under his breath. Rose laughed at him, then stopped short, her hand flying to her side as she winced in pain.
Immediately the Doctor was all concern.
"It's ok," Rose said. "I'm fine."
"You're a lousy liar," the Doctor said. "You want some water?"
Rose nodded, and the Doctor dived into a bag, pulling out a water bottle. She sipped it carefully.
The Doctor leaned over her, and buckled her seatbelt securely, then took her free hand, and waited for the plane to begin its descent.
------
"Mrs. Smith? The aisle is clear. You can leave the plane now." Leave
Rose smiled up at the stewardess.
"Thanks," she said.
"I'll get the, um…" the Doctor got out of his own seat and scrambled over Rose to the aisle.
"I hope you like Greece," the stewardess said, "It's a beautiful place."
Rose nodded.
"All the places I've been, I can't believe I've never been to Greece."
"Where are you headed?"
"A small town on the coast of the Mediterranean. Somewhere we can't get in trouble, so I can take it easy for a while," Rose said.
The stewardess smiled.
"Well you've come to the right place if you're looking for relaxation."
The Doctor came hurrying up the aisle.
"Here it is," he said.
The stewardess moved aside, and he came up beside Rose's plane seat. Carefully, he knelt down, and put his arms underneath Rose's knees, and around her back. Rose willingly put her arms around his neck, and he lifted her up. Gently, he moved her from the plane seat and sat her down into her new chair. The stewardess kindly handed Rose her bag, and the Doctor got behind her.
"Ready?" he asked.
Rose nodded, and the Doctor began to steadily push the wheelchair down the aisle towards the door.
-------
The Doctor looked up from the kitchen counter, and caught sight of Rose. She was directly outside the huge bay windows that overlooked the Mediterranean, sitting stiffly in her wheelchair. The Doctor sighed. He knew that she hated to be confined like that, but there wasn't much of a choice. When and if her body decided to heal itself, she could get out of the chair, but not before. Her brush with death had been much too close.
The Doctor put the ice cube tray back in the freezer, and picked up the two glasses. He was doing everything he could to make this little holiday as pleasant for Rose as he could. And as much like a holiday as he could. Even though she held her head high when people gave her sideways looks about her wheelchair, and joked about being different once again, the Doctor knew that it bothered her. So he was trying to make her feel as comfortable and happy as possible. He had even put a little umbrella in her drink. Using his foot to push the door open, the Doctor joined Rose out in the warm sunshine.
She turned her head and watched at him as he approached.
"I thought you'd gotten lost in that huge house," Rose said, smiling up at him. "Seriously, Doctor, how do you find these places?"
"I'm shagging the travel agent?" the Doctor suggested.
Rose chuckled softly. Doctor felt ridiculously pleased with himself: Rose hadn't laughed like that since the accident. He handed her the tall glass of coke, with the multicoloured umbrella in it, and pulled up a deckchair beside her.
"A lot of people bring their computers down for us geeks to fix when they break. You wouldn't believe the stuff I find on those hard drives," the Doctor said conversationally.
Rose smirked.
"You're blackmailing people?"
"I prefer to think of it as gathering favours to be called in at a later time," the Doctor corrected.
Rose pulled the umbrella out of her drink, and raised her eyebrow at the Doctor.
"It's a little too… Cuba… for Greece, isn't it?"
"I thought it was festive," the Doctor pouted.
Rose's face turned impassive, her eyes on the horizon where the sea met the sky.
"What're we celebrating?" she asked.
The Doctor gently took the umbrella out of her hand and held it.
"You being alive. I say that's reason enough to celebrate."
He leaned over, and kissed her gently.
Rose gave a small smile.
"Sorry for being grumpy," she said, leaning her forehead against his. "I guess I can't complain with being alive, can I?"
"Nope," said the Doctor with a forced cheerfulness. "If you'd have died I never would have forgiven you."
"Good to know," said Rose, taking a sip of her drink.
The Doctor thought about her lying in that hospital bed, covered in tubes, and shuddered.
"Please never do that to me again," he said softly.
"I'll try not to," Rose answered. "It just felt so much like old times back there. You, me, a crazy adventure, getting out of a difficult situation. And if anything went wrong, we had the TARDIS to fall back on."
"We can't be like that any more," the Doctor said. "We have to be careful. We both of us only have one life now."
Rose nodded, and twirled the umbrella around in her fingers contemplatively. Then, she picked up her drink.
"To life," she said, holding it up.
The Doctor clinked his glass with hers.
"To our life together," he amended.
------
"Please?"
"No."
"Doctor, please?"
"No!" the Doctor objected. "Rose, you're supposed to be resting."
Rose groaned with frustration.
"I'm sick of resting. If I rest any more, I'll go mad. Come on, Doctor. It's just one trip into town. I'll have visited Greece and not doing any touristy things. Please?"
The Doctor looked helpless.
"You're supposed to be getting better," he said lamely.
"I won't get any better if I drive myself batty in this house!" Rose snapped.
The Doctor sighed.
"If we go out – if – will you promise to let me push the wheelchair, and not try to wander off?"
"How'm I going to wander off in a wheelchair?" Rose asked.
The Doctor scowled at her.
"You would find a way."
"Are we going then?" Rose asked eagerly.
"Yes, fine, we're going."
Rose gave him a brilliant smile.
"Thank you. Not that I don't love the seaside and all, but it's not like I can go swimming, and I want to see the town."
"You mean you want to go shopping," said the Doctor, handing Rose her purse.
"That too," Rose replied, grinning.
------
Rose lay with her head in the Doctor's lap. He was deep in a book, his specs pushed up his nose. Rose watched him as his face was screwed up in concentration, and every so often he would scribble a comment in the margins of the page.
Rose looked over to the water with something akin to longing. She would have loved to go swimming, but as the Doctor was constantly reminding her, she needed to rest. The Doctor was doing everything to make sure she was comfortable and happy, even surprising her with a brand new swim suit to wear, as a sort of apology for not getting to actually swim.
"You can sit in the water," he had said, hopefully.
Rose had sighed.
"Not the same, is it?"
"Well, I know I don't mind looking at you in that little bikini," he had replied, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
Rose just rolled her eyes.
"You might look good in those swimming shorts if you weren't so skinny," she had teased.
The Doctor looked down at his Hawaii- themed swim shorts.
"What's wrong with them?" he had asked.
Rose smiled now at the memory.
"What're you reading?" she asked, breaking the comfortable silence.
"A book," the Doctor answered absently.
Rose rolled her eyes.
"Yes, I see that. What's the book about?"
The Doctor looked up from his page.
"Wormhole physics, by Samantha Carter. Usually I read these books and am disgusted by the lack of knowledge these people have. But this woman, she's got it pretty well right. I'm very impressed."
"Someone who can keep up with you," Rose said, with a smile. "Maybe we should meet this woman."
"Who says I haven't already? Sam's a brilliant woman."
Rose gave him a mock scowl. She'd heard enough of the women he'd met in his travels not to feel threatened by any of them.
The Doctor grinned.
"She was also totally in love with her CO. It was quite funny to watch those two. Asked her to go with me, but she said she was needed where she was. We both save the galaxy in our different ways. She's blonde, you know. Always did have a thing for blonds." He played with a lock of Rose's hair.
"Mmmm… that feels nice," Rose let her eyes drift closed again.
The Doctor put down his book, and began to work his way through Rose's hair.
"It's getting long," he commented.
"I know. Do you think I should cut it?" Rose asked.
The Doctor thought for a moment.
"No, don't. We don't have to be always running any more, so it doesn't matter if it's long. It suits you. Long and elegant."
Rose chuckled.
"Blokes always fancy long hair," she said.
"And yours is particularly nice," the Doctor replied.
Rose smiled, and let herself be carried along by the sensation of the Doctor's hands in her hair. Beside them, a radio played tunes softly. They were in Greek, but Rose enjoyed the music even if she could understand the words. The sunshine was warm, but there was just enough of a cool breeze to make it a comfortable temperature. The sound of the waves coming in and out on the shore was a peaceful background percussion.
"Hello?" said a strange voice, in English.
Rose sat up.
"What was that?" she asked.
The Doctor looked confused.
"There's no one around," he said, scanning in the beach.
"Hello, is anyone there?" said the voice, strangely static this time.
The Doctor cocked his ear, and then turned.
"It's the radio," he said, in a hushed whisper.
A stronger voice came through the speakers.
"This is Radio Nowhere. Is there anybody alive out there?"
Rose's eyes grew wide.
"Mickey?"
"Mickey?" the Doctor mouthed to her.
Rose held up her hand to silence him.
"Mickey, it's Rose. Can you hear me?"
"Anyone there?" asked a static voice on the other end.
"Mickey! What have you done now? I told you not to touch Tosh's equipment. Nobody but her knew what they did, and even then she only knew half the time," said another familiar voice.
Rose and the Doctor traded glances.
The Doctor leaned over the radio.
"Jack?" he called. He fished his sonic screwdriver, which he now carried everywhere with him again, out of a beach bag, and buzzed the radio.
"Captain Jack Harkness, can you hear me?" he asked again.
There was a pause.
"Jack Harkness here. Who's this?"
"It's pretty insulting when you don't even recognize our voices, Jack," Rose said, a smirk tugging at her lips.
"Rose?" Jack asked.
"Rose?" chimed in Mickey's voice.
"Where did this patch come out?" Jack asked.
"Blimey, we really can't go anywhere without interruption. Greece," said the Doctor.
"What're you doing in Greece?" a female voiced asked, the words tinted with a Welsh accent. "I thought you lived in London."
"We do, usually," Rose said.
"We're on holiday. Rose is recovering."
"Doctor! You're supposed to be taking care of her!" Jack said sternly.
"You know what she's like!" the Doctor objected. "She got shot."
"Not on purpose!" Rose objected.
Jack laughed.
"You two never change."
The Doctor looked thoughtful.
"Not that I'm not glad to hear from you, Jack, but how are you doing this? We're in another universe, in case you haven't noticed."
"That's my fault," said Mickey. "I was playing with some equipment left behind by someone who used to work here. I didn't think it would actually reach another universe."
"Tosh was experimenting with tapping the Rift's power to boost radio signals," said yet another voice.
A huge smile spread over the Doctor's face.
"Martha? When did you join Torchwood?"
"About the time you joined the ranks of the domestic," said Martha with a smirk. "I've had enough of UNIT's militarization. Torchwood is much more relaxed."
"But patching into the Rift- isn't that dangerous?" Rose asked, bringing them back to the topic at hand.
"Yes, that's why Tosh discontinued her research." Rose could hear the glare in Jack's voice.
"The Rift is unstable. If you use it like this, you risk further tearing," the Doctor said.
"I didn't know!" Mickey argued. "It's all junk on a desk to me!"
"I think you should shut this connection, and not use it again," said the Doctor, a little sadly.
Rose felt sadness wash over her as well. It was nice to talk to Jack again, even for just a few minutes.
"Well at least we know it works. We can use it if we ever need to contact you again," Martha said.
"The Doctor's right. We can't agitate the Rift any more than necessary," said Jack.
"Well if you ever need us, we're here," Rose said.
"How's the other me?" the Doctor asked suddenly.
Martha sighed.
"Not good, I think. He was forced to erase Donna's memory, so he's all alone again."
"What? Why?" Rose demanded, turning to the Doctor.
"She had a Time Lord consciousness. No human mind is equipped to deal with that," the Doctor said, sadly.
"I managed," Rose shot back.
The Doctor shook his head.
"This is different, Rose. She got it all at once, and it was burning out her own synaptic pathways. He had to erase it all, or she would die."
"We haven't heard from him since," said the Welsh woman. "It's not good for him to be alone."
"Gwen's right," said Martha. "He needs to find someone."
The Doctor's hand found Rose's, and he gave her a small, knowing smile.
"We should go," Jack said firmly.
"Bye!" Martha said.
"See you, Rose. Doctor, you take care of her," instructed Mickey.
"This isn't goodbye," Rose insisted, sniffing a little. "This is just till next time."
"Until next time," the Doctor repeated.
"Until next time, Doctor, Rose," Jack said.
The radio crackled, and then went silent. For a moment there was nothing but the crashing of the waves on the shore, and the sound of their own breathing. Then, the Greek songs came back, crooning softly as if nothing had happened.
"Well that was odd!" the Doctor said, forcing cheer into his voice.
Rose lay back on the blanket. The effort to sit up by herself for so long had worn her out.
"At least they know how to reach us if they need us," she said softly.
The Doctor didn't answer. He lay down beside her and took her hand.
Author's Note: Remember a really long time ago when I asked for suggestions for this story? Well somebody suggested that Rose and the Doctor take a holiday. So here it is, complete with the Doctor in swimming trunks :-)
Has everyone seen the Children in Need special? It was really only a trailer of the Christmas special, but it looks so good! I know I said I wasn't excited about Cybermen, but then I found out that who could possibly be the Eleventh Doctor is in it. I'm not sure how I feel about him, especially when he used Ten's phrase "Allons-y". But then, I was upset when Nine left too, so I'm willing to give him a chance.
Thanks to I am the Lev for letting me borrow her radio-to-another-universe idea. I didn't put Fitz into the conversation… but I wanted to!