Thank you to everyone who reviewed!
Rose spent her whole day in bed, curled up in the Doctor's arms. She slept a lot, but sometimes she would just lie there and talk. The Doctor was perfectly content to simply hold Rose, but, seeing he hadn't slept for a few days himself and had just saved the universe another time around, he also drifted off for a while. When he woke up the sun was shining outside. Rose was already awake.
Rose smiled as she watched the Doctor sleep. It was so rare. With his chest rising slightly, his breath slow and his eyelashes resting on his cheeks, he looked utterly adorable. He rolled over, groaning slightly and rubbed his eyes, opening them and immediately closing them again as he saw the sunlight filter through the window. "Morning!" Rose greeted cheerfully, surprised that she had managed to sleep through most of the night. She generally only needed 5 hours now.
The Doctor smiled lazily at her. "Hello, sleepyhead."
"I could say the same to you!" Rose scoffed playfully. "You've been asleep half the night.
The Doctor frowned slightly. Half the night? Strange, he generally only needed 4 hours of sleep every few days. Then again, holding Rose, he was comfortable, and it was easy to drift off to sleep. Not to mention that he hadn't had any nightmares. Generally, the Doctor had nightmares about Gallifrey, but often rose had been in them too. But then she had disappeared, falling, and the Doctor could do nothing except scream. This night however, had been peaceful, and the best sleep he had had in a long time.
Rose sat up. "Guess what we are going to do today?" she asked him. The Doctor considered and smiled at their reversed roles. Most of the time it would be him asking that question on board the TARDIS. But this time he was the one on the new adventure, the domestic one. And he honestly had no idea. He shook his head and waited for Rose to answer the question. "Shopping!" she said gleefully. The Doctor stared at her with a horrified expression. "Shopping?" he managed to croak.
Rose nodded enthusiastically. "You need new clothes" she told him.
"I have this suit and a spare one" the doctor protested. "I can wear one while I'll sonic the other clean! See? Easy!"
Rose sighed. "Still" she reasoned. You need more clothes. But, if you want to keep the suits we can ask our stylist, Candice, to make you some."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "You have a stylist".
Rose shrugged indifferently. "Yeah…wasn't my idea, it was the old Jackie's, obviously. But mum likes having a stylist, seeing she has to attend all those parties and things. Sometimes having her comes in handy too, when I have an appearance at some party or whatever. If you want to give her your two suits, she can take measurements and replicate them as many times as you want."
The Doctor nodded, that sounded like a good plan. "I can try sonicing the pockets so they are bigger on the inside as well, I suppose" he said. "But if I give her both my suits I won't have anything to wear…"
"Which is why we need to go shopping!" Rose filled in, knowing she had won. The Doctor simply groaned. "Plus, I need to pick up some groceries, and I was thinking, we should decorate this place a bit."
The Doctor looked around. It was true, the place didn't really show that any person properly lived here. He raised his eyebrows in question.
"After the whole universe thing, decorating was the last thing on my mind…but now, I can think about it".
"Okay" the Doctor shrugged. "But on one condition. We have to paint at least one thing TARDIS blue."
Rose grinned. "Got it!"
.
.
.
Jackie smiled as she watched Gossip TV. She had just randomly switched on the television, trying to find Sesame Street for Tony, when Gossip TV and her annoying host, Angelina Chan had come on with a new gossip lead story.
"- And it seems that our favourite heiress, Rose Tyler, daughter of the vitex millionaire Pete Tyler, has found herself a new beau! She has now been sighted several times with a tall, dark haired man, coming back from a holiday in Norway and out and about in London. The pair has been seen visiting several of the heiress' favourite restaurants together and have more recently been sighted on a shopping trip, holding hands and appearing rather intimate with each other.
No public announcement about the couple has yet been made, but from the various sightings it seems that wedding bells might soon be ringing in the air for the couple. Stay tuned at Gossip TV for more info!"
Jackie sighed and switched channels. That had not taken them long. Of course, Rose finally having a boyfriend would excite the media beyond belief. Rose had been on the cover of every magazine cover when she had come to Pete's world, and had been labelled as the gorgeous, sexy and rich heiress, and London's favourite daughter. Media followed her all the time, but often speculated about her relationships. Seeing that Rose was clever, rich and beautiful, they expected her to go through boys like clothes or at least have some sort of serious relationship with someone. They had thought her to be together with Mickey for a while, seeing she spent so much time with him. She and Mickey also held hands often; it was a simple comfort gesture for them, a way for them to show that they were there for each other. However, whenever the media had cornered Rose and Jackie about it, they had both said that Mickey was simply a very, very close friend of the family and Rose's best friend. The media had lost interest in that story after a little while.
But seeing Rose with a handsome, mysterious stranger, who she already appeared extremely intimate with, was extremely exciting. Papers had already been made for the Doctor, who had decided to call himself John Noble Smith (after Donna) and decided to be 33 years of age from London. The Doctor had already agreed to work at Torchwood, at least for some time. Jackie was glad that Pete had taken these precautions minutes after the Doctor and Rose arrived, because the media would want to find out who this stranger was. They were prepared in any case.
.
.
.
"How do you feel about jeans?" Rose asked, as they browsed the men's clothing section.
"Ahhh" the Doctor said. 2Interesting clothing article actually. Originated in America in 1950, but were generally only for cowboys. But suddenly they hit the American market and BOOM, the whole world started wearing them. Of course, they never did say exactly who gave everyone the idea to put them on the market." He grinned mischievously at her.
"They just remember a blue police box, and decided that that was the colour that would suit these particular pants the most."
"Uh huh, very funny." Rose said teasingly. "But seriously, what do you think of getting some jeans for yourself?"
The Doctor screwed up his nose and shook his head…he couldn't really imagine himself in jeans. Rose sighed. "Try some on" she told him encouragingly. He stared at her. "Ro-ose!" he said pleadingly.
"Come on Doctor!" Rose gave him her signature smile. "No harm in trying them on!"
"Yeah, no harm except loss of dignity" the Doctor grumbled under his breath.
.
.
.
Eventually the doctor and Rose left the store, chatting happily. Rose had loved jeans on the Doctor, and had persuaded him to buy them, assuring him he wouldn't actually have to wear them every day, but until Candice finished his suits. The Doctor had brightened up at this. They had also brought some food, namely the ingredients for making pizza and banana fritters. And jam, obviously. The Doctor had persuaded her, telling her that he had asked in the kitchen and that she only had about 5 jars at home. Rose rolled her eyes, but laughed and allowed the Doctor to put 6 jars into her trolley. Last but not least they had gone shopping in the decorating department, namely for paint. To the Doctor's delight, they had found some TARDIS blue and had both unanimously decided to paint the bedroom door blue. The doctor also got the idea to go into Torchwood and develop all the pictures Rose and he had ever taken on their travels, and get them developed in a larger size, so that they could cover a wall with them. Rose loved the idea.
After their shopping trip had finished, and Rose thanked god that the media had left them mostly alone (several cameras had flashed that morning when they had been eating breakfast in her favourite coffee shop and when they had been grocery shopping) but so far no reporters had run up to them to question the couple. Several of the shop assistants had smiled at Rose (they knew Rose fairly well, because she favoured these particular stores.) and had said that they were happy to see her back and exchanged words with the Doctor as well.
Rose and the Doctor had gone to another small café, so they could have a small lunch (Rose was starving) and discuss their plans for the day.
"Now that we are done with shopping, I would like to take Tony out or something" Rose suggested. "He thought I wasn't coming back, and I've really missed him, so maybe we could take him to the park or something."
The Doctor voiced his agreement. He liked Rose's little brother a lot.
"Good, I can finish explaining to him the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than on the outside" he said happily. Rose laughed.
"Anyway, I have to meet my Torchwood team first" Rose said. I haven't called them yet, but they know from Pete that I'm back. I have to talk to them and make sure everything is all right, before I go back to work next week."
The Doctor nodded, already seeing the small change in Rose when she talked about her team. The way she spoke was already slightly clipped and business-like and she sat up straighter. The Doctor didn't really like these changes, this was not his Rose. Of course it was only to be expected and largely his fault. Rose had explained how she had let he pain evolve into a mask or shield around her. He got it, he had used the same defence mechanism after the Time War, hiding his previous happy side under grumpiness and sarcasm.
"I will be really quick, so you can either head back home, or wait for me in the Torchwood foyer. That way, we can talk to Jane, the receptionist, about getting you an office and everything. "
The Doctor nodded. Is Torchwood at Canary Warf like the other one?"
Rose nodded. "We can take the tube".
The Doctor smiled. "What, no limousine from Pete to pick you up?"
Rose screwed her nose up in distaste. "I hate all that stuff". She admitted, and brushed crumbs off her lap and stood up, taking the Doctor's hand. "Time to meet Torchwood!"
Please review!