Traveling and Falling
Over the next few months, Rose found herself at home in the TARDIS and its occupants. She quickly became accustomed to the modern clothes and speech, and started coming out of her shell. Before a month was out, she was more outgoing, fiercer, stronger, she was smiling and laughing and she'd already saved the Doctor's life half a dozen times. She loved traveling and she adored her friends whom she saw as family.
Sarah-Jane was like a mother to her, she was starting to call Wilf 'Granddad' like the others, K9 was a funny little pet, she viewed the others as the siblings she never had and she had a close friendship with the Doctor, whom she cherished deeply.
Truth be told, they all seemed to be as fond of Rose as she was of them. Wilf and Sarah-Jane were always offering parental advice or companionship, Mickey and Martha were fun to be with, K9 would play little games with her, and Jack and Donna were like her protective older siblings. The Doctor cared about all his companions, but he seemed to watch out for Rose the most. He seemed to be a great deal happier since she'd come onboard.
Old habits were hard to break, and Rose pitched in around taking care of things from time-to-time. Everyone refused to let her clean by herself if ever, but if she offered to cook, they let her as her cooking was quite fine and they all loved it.
One evening, after Rose had saved the Doctor's life from the Nestine Consciousness on Earth of 2005 by grabbing onto a chain and doing an insane yet heroic leap, knocking his captors and the vial of anti-plastic into the Nestine and almost literally, falling into his arms, Rose, Donna, Martha and Sarah-Jane were cooking in the kitchen.
They were making spaghetti, apple cobbler and banana cream pie, both Rose and the Doctor's favorites. The Doctor didn't really cook, and Mickey had politely declined as he was tired and not much of a cook, so he was playing computer games with Wilf and K9.
Jack was trying to help, (key word being 'trying') but he was really just being a pest because he kept trying to swipe samples of Rose's cooking before it was ready.
"You should've come onboard earlier, Rosie. I swear, I've never tasted food this good," said Jack.
He was about to reach for the cobbler, when Rose smacked his hand with the back of a wooden spoon.
"Ow!"
"Touch that again and it'll be a slap," said Rose, warningly. "The royal family's infamous slap runs in the family on my mother's side and I tend to take after her."
Jack pouted as everyone laughed, but he smiled after Donna kissed his hand better.
"I'm really glad you came, Rose. The Doctor's changed overnight," said Sarah-Jane.
"How'd you mean?"
"Well, he's always been a bit broody, but ever since he met you, he's been happy as a clam," said Martha.
"I hardly think I've done anything just by being here," said Rose. "I'm just a runaway, for heaven's sake."
"Oi, none of that self-depreciation stuff!" said Donna, sharply. Then her tone softened. "The Doctor doesn't take just anyone, Rose. He doesn't do it out of pity or anything like that. He sees the best in people, sees what we rarely see in ourselves and he only takes the ones he really likes. He thinks you're special and you've made him happier than he's been in a long time."
Rose was stunned. She knew the Doctor had a difficult past, but she'd never once expected that he saw something beautiful in her or that she made his life better. Needing a moment to herself to consider all of this, she volunteered to pick the bananas they needed for the banana cream pie, and so she went off to one of the many TARDIS's orchards to pick the yellow fruit.
As she climbed the banana tree and began picking the bananas, she felt something stirring inside her. Softly, she began to sing an old tune she'd been taught by one of her nursemaids growing up, who'd taught her never to give up on love and always be true to herself.
Someday my prince will come
Someday I'll find my love
And how thrilling that moment will be
When the prince of my dreams comes to me
He'll whisper I love you
And steal a kiss or two
Though he's far away I'll find my love someday
Someday when my dreams come true
She smiled to herself as she thought back to her childhood years when she'd spent many a night reading with her father, dreaming about the plans she had for her life and the prince he'd always envisioned for her. Although, some would say while she didn't have a prince in a castle, per say, she did have a lord of time in a blue box from a faraway place and she was traveling just as she'd always dreamed.
Someday I'll find my love
Someone to call my own
And I know at the moment we meet
my heart will start skipping the beats
Someday we'll say and do
Things we've been longing to
Though he's far away I'll find my love someday
Someday when my dreams come true
Ever since that fateful day when he'd climbed into the palace garden, the Doctor had occupied Rose's thoughts. She'd never known any man like him and no doubt she never would again. He was just fantastic in so many ways. He was brave, intelligent, exciting and just plain fantastic. The song he'd played the night of their first party together had said 'two hearts beating' for her. What if it was possible? What if he knew how Rose truly felt and reciprocated her feelings?
Rose shook her head at her silliness. She was lucky enough to even be with the Doctor. The mere thought of him even looking twice at her was positively ridiculous. Still, there was no harm in just dreaming, was there?
Someday my prince will come
Someday we'll meet again
And away to his castle we'll go
To be happy forever I know
Someday when spring is here
We'll find our love anew
And the birds will sing and wedding bells will ring
Someday when my dreams come true
Just as she finished singing, Rose lost her footing and fell from the tree. But thankfully, she landed in the Doctor's arms and didn't drop her basket or its contents.
"This is becoming almost common between us," said the Doctor, smiling.
"Shut up," said Rose, but she was laughing as she said it.
He put her down. "What were you doing anyway?"
"Picking bananas for a banana cream pie," said Rose. "It's your favorite, right?" If there was anything the Doctor loved, it was bananas. It was probably why the TARDIS had left out the recipe for a banana cream pie when she'd arrived.
"You know me so well," said the Doctor, smiling as they both chuckled. "Come on."
She followed him out of the gardens and they began talking and before long, the Doctor noticed Rose's mind seemed to be elsewhere.
"Rose, is there something on your mind?" he asked.
"You could say that," she said. She sighed. "Doctor, I've been thinking and I've come to a decision. Soon, I want to go back to Freedonia."
The Doctor stopped walking and stared at her. There was a hint of fear in his blue eyes. "You want to go back?"
"Not right this minute and I don't want to go back forever," said Rose, quickly, realizing her mistake. She smiled a little when she saw the relief in his eyes. "But I have a duty to my people. They've suffered under Cassandra's rule for so long and I want to help them somehow."
She had no intention of permanently leaving her life on the TARDIS, but she often wonder about what might've been. Maybe if I hadn't liked Cassandra so much when she met my father, he wouldn't have married her. Maybe things would've been different.
"Did you seriously think I meant I was leaving forever?" she asked.
"No," said the Doctor, quickly.
Rose smiled and squeezed his shoulder. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."
The Doctor smiled back. "I know," he said. "And we will straighten things out in Freedonia, I promise."
Squeezing her hand, they continued their walk onward and then somehow, the subject of the Doctor's world was brought up.
"Doctor, out of curiosity, what was your world like? If you don't mind my asking," said Rose.
"No, I don't mind. Gallifrey was gorgeous. There were vast mountains with fields of red grass capped with snow, silver-leafed trees that seemed to glow like fire as the sun set that burnt orange sky ablaze. When I was a kid, we used to live in a house that was perched halfway up the top of a mountain. Once, I ran down that mountain and I found that the rocks weren't grey at all—but they were red, brown and purple and gold. And those pathetic little patches of sludgy snow were shining white. Shining white in the sunlight," said the Doctor, sounding wistful.
"I wish I could've seen it," said Rose, softly, as she imagined the majestic planet in her mind.
"So do I. You would've loved it," said the Doctor. "The Time Lords were fantastic in their day. We were civilized, powerful and brilliant. We achieved in just a few short months what would've taken others centuries. But still, we were flawed, just like anyone else. Lords and ladies of time with so much power at our fingertips, and yet there're some things even we couldn't change or foresee."
"Like what?" asked Rose, curiously.
"Well, when we turned eight, we'd be taken to the Untempered Schism, a gap in the fabric of space and time. From then on, we become what we were. Some were inspired, some went mad and others ran," explained the Doctor. "We never knew how exactly we were going to turn out after such a thing."
"You one of the ones who ran," said Rose. It wasn't a question.
The Doctor nodded. "The TARDIS was a museum piece when I found her. I was just a kid, no more than two hundred years old at the time. They were eventually going to turn her over to the junkyard. But I wasn't going to let that happen. I wanted to see the universe, so I borrowed the old girl, ran away and didn't look back. Picked up a few friends here and there over the centuries, but eventually they all left."
A look of sadness crossed his face at that, which made Rose's heart stir with sympathy as she knew what it was like to be alone.
"Donna and the others haven't left you," said Rose, gently. "And I don't intend to leave either."
The Doctor didn't speak on that matter and just went on with his story. "Anyway, eventually there was a war. It was the Last Great Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks. We fought hard, but eventually we lost. I ended the War and the Daleks and only survived because the old girl couldn't bear to let me go. From then on, I was alone and grieving. I was a mess."
Rose's heart ached and she squeezed his shoulder. "I'm sorry."
The Doctor smiled a little as he covered her hand with his own. "Thank you."
"So, what did you do?" asked Rose.
"I wandered, same as always, but it lost its excitement until I met the others. Sarah-Jane and K9 had traveled with me once before and wanted to come back, I saved Martha and Mickey from aliens that attacked a hospital where she worked, I met Jack in 1941 because of a slight mishap, and Donna and Wilf joined me after a series of misadventures you'll have to ask her about. Things got even better when I met you."
Rose blushed a little. "Well, I'm glad I could make you happy," she said. She smiled softly as she realized something.
"What is it?"
"I've just realized that ever since I came here, on the TARDIS, I mean, I've felt something I haven't felt in a long time," said Rose.
"Felt like what?" asked the Doctor.
"Like I'm part of a family with you and the others, and I feel Happy and safe," she said. And loved, she silently added.
The Doctor smiled and took her hand in his and they tightly intertwined their fingers together as they walked down to the kitchen, feeling content and happy.