A/N Rose receives a visitor while at work. Any guesses as to who?

Chapter 22

As it turned out, getting the job at Henrik's had done Rose a world of good. It had only been three days, but already she was beginning to feel more like herself and less like a recovering patient. Having something to occupy her time had helped to take her mind off her issues for a little while.

Rose had found that one of her old friends still worked there, too. Paul Tanner had been a fellow shop assistant when she had known him a few years before, but he was now a merchandising manager for another department. Seeing her former youthful acquaintance, now responsible and in management, just made Rose all the more aware of the time that had passed – the time she was missing. None of them were teenagers anymore, yet in some ways it felt like she was having to start her life back as if from that point. Rose was determined to keep moving forward, though, and would not let that lost time hold her back.

Her first day of work that week had been an interesting one, if not a little humorous. It wasn't hard to spot the man in the pinstriped suit who just happened to be "casually" milling through the store, in very close proximity to where she was working. Rose wasn't entirely surprised when he'd turned up. She knew her doctor had not been too keen on the idea of her starting back at work, and apparently being his sole patient for the time being meant she would continue to be under his watchful care, whether at home or at work. She approached him that first day, and he gave up trying to pretend he was there for any reason other than to check on her. Rose really didn't mind, though; and it just made her realize all the more how extraordinarily caring and dedicated this doctor was.

After that the Doctor stopped by regularly each day to check on her during her breaks. Each time Rose found herself looking forward to seeing him. Those visits were becoming the highlight of her workday. In the evenings after she got off, they would resume their work on her damaged memories, though she felt frustratingly at a standstill in that regard. But the Doctor made efforts to keep her encouraged, reminding her that it had not yet even been two weeks. Rose told herself she would just have to try to remain hopeful and patient through the process, come what may.

Now into her third and last day of work for the week, Rose was just about to go on her late morning break when, like clockwork, the Doctor showed up. He seemed to have an innate sense of timing, she noted. Rose smiled at him from across the store as she carried a small stack of clothing to a nearby table where she was arranging a display. The Doctor, however, didn't smile back. Instead, his brow creased into a frown and he hurried towards her, his long brown coat billowing behind him.

"Rose, what are you doing?" he hastily questioned, while simultaneously extricating her arms from the clothing she was carrying.

"I could ask you the same thing," she replied with a smirk, though she let him take the clothes from her as her empty arms fell back to her sides.

"I thought we agreed you weren't going to do anything to strain yourself if you went to work. You shouldn't be carrying this load," he admonished.

Rose chuckled. "This load of...cloth? Honestly, I'm not made of porcelain, you know." The Doctor just gave her a look. The type of look which said there was more he wanted to say, but didn't. Maybe he just didn't want to get into a disagreement over the issue. They had already been down that road once recently, and neither one wanted to repeat the incident.

"I just don't want you over-exerting yourself while you're still recovering," he answered, having to leave it at that. "You should be about to go on your break now, anyway. Let someone else do this." The Doctor glanced around the store for a place to unload his armful of garments. "Where do you want this?"

Rose directed him to the display table near the front window where he sat down the stack of clothing. "I've still got a few more minutes to go, and I've got to get this display finished. But since you're so worried about me overdoing it, you can help me with this." She grinned at him, the tip of her tongue appearing between her teeth.

That certain smile always had a way of being his undoing. It might have been innocent on her part, but the Doctor's hearts beat a slightly faster tempo at the tempting gesture that gave him the rather strong urge to pull her into his arms and snog her then and there. It also reminded him again that what he desired was something he had to suppress. With each day that passed, he wondered just how much longer he could continue like this. Rose used to tease him about his superior and selective barriers of arousal, saying a single look, touch or word from her could weaken his grip on control, then would often go about successfully, and much to his pleasure, demonstrating her point.

After focusing perhaps a few seconds too long and much too intently on that alluring pink tongue, the Doctor dropped his eyes down to the safer territory of the display table and began helping her arrange the clothing. Well, this was new. Time Lord turned window-dresser. The things he would do for this pink and yellow girl. His fingers stilled as he became aware for the first time just what it was they were arranging. Slowly, the Doctor lifted a tiny little garment, some sort of one-piece outfit with pale yellow stripes and a non-anatomically accurate but presumably cute representation of a smiling duck across the front.

The Doctor was drawn back out of his fixed state by Rose's hand waving in front of his face. He brought his eyes back to hers. "You alright?" she asked with a curious frown, then glanced at the tiny outfit still held in his unmoving hands.

"It's just so...small," he finally replied.

Rose chuckled slightly. "Well, yeah. I think they make them that way for a reason. Babies are usually small."

"They are, aren't they?" he murmured, as if just realizing it for the first time. His mind went back to the conversation he'd had on Janyeer when working with Professor T'neer, telling him that the size of a person made no difference – he viewed them all the same. But there was a difference, wasn't there? An infant was so small and helpless and completely dependent on its parents for its every need. The Doctor once again felt a stirring of something within him, something basic and instinctual. A feeling of protectiveness and supreme responsibility for the tiny life now forming within Rose.

The Doctor was again awed by the thought that he was actually going to be a father. It had been centuries since he'd been a dad. And with methodical looming and children taken from their families to join the Academy at the age of eight, fatherhood for him had never been anything like this. After so many centuries – and losing his entire race – he was now going to have a family again. Regardless of how much time he would have them in his life, Rose and the baby were his family. Sometimes he still had to remind himself it was true. Maybe he had been feeling overly cautious and overly protective through this, but when you've once lost everyone in life, you cling ever tighter to those you have. He would give his life for Rose and this child.

After helping Rose finish the display, the Doctor, having remembered he had a few pounds stuffed somewhere in the bottomless depths of his pockets, decided to make a purchase.

"You're gonna buy that?" Rose asked with amusement. "Whatever for?"

The Doctor gave her a silly grin which rivaled the one worn by the duck on the baby outfit. "Well, I suppose I have to make a purchase now and then to keep your boss from complaining about me being here all the time." His grin receded as his eyes softened. He had to force his eyes to stay on her face and not drift to her belly. "And I also know someone who's expecting a baby. Since this is the sort of thing babies wear, I suppose items like this will eventually be needed."

Rose didn't question him further. She just smiled and went to the register to ring up his purchase.

Afterwards, the Doctor accompanied Rose to the break room. It wasn't time for her lunch hour yet, but he thought she might be getting hungry none the less (and for a certain food in particular), so he'd brought her something just in case. As they sat down at a small, white veneer table currently not occupied by other employees, the Doctor reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out two bananas, offering one to Rose.

"Thought you might like a snack."

Rose's face lit up upon seeing the proffered fruit. "I don't know why I can't get enough of these lately," she remarked, yet didn't hold back from taking it and peeling the yellow skin with eagerness. "It's just weird."

The Doctor took a hearty bite of his own banana as he shook his head in disagreement. "Nothing weird about it. Bananas are good."

Rose smiled amusedly, but here lately she had to agree. While now on the subject of discussing strange things, there was something else strange that had been on Rose's mind the past couple of days. Ordinarily she probably wouldn't have mentioned it to anyone or even thought much about it, but since the Doctor was trying to help sort out her memories, Rose thought maybe this had some sort of significance, and for some reason she hadn't been able to get it off her mind.

"Well, bananas might not be so strange," Rose replied back, now leading into this topic occupying her thoughts, "but there's something else I've been thinking about lately that definitely falls into the category of 'weird.'"

"And what would that be?" the Doctor asked, speaking around his mouthful of banana.

Rose hesitated, glancing around the break room to see that they were still alone. "It's daft," she chuckled with embarrassment. "But I've been having these really strange dreams. And when I say really strange, I mean... Well, anyway, let's just say they're strange. It started about two nights ago, but last night was the most vivid of all. It's probably not even worth mentioning. I mean, dreams are usually strange, yeah? But this just...stuck with me. I keep thinking about it."

The Doctor crossed his arms on the edge of the table and leaned forward, angling towards her. "Dreams are a way for your subconscious to process information. It's possible those dreams were memories trying to come to the surface."

Rose snorted at that statement. "Not those dreams. Trust me. They couldn't have possibly been memories."

Oh, you'd be surprised, the Doctor thought to himself, trying to contain the hopeful excitement building within him at the possibility of her memories trying to surface. "Why don't you tell me what you remember about them?" he encouraged.

Biting her lip, Rose cut her eyes around the room again, then scooted her chair closer to his and lowered her voice. "Well, the dream I remember most started out here, at Henrik's. I was down in the cellar, and then suddenly the shop window dummies just...came to life and started surrounding me." Rose's eyes were distant as she relived the dream. "And...and then there was this man. This mysterious man who saved me from them just in time. I couldn't really see him clearly in the dream, but he took my hand and we ran."

The Doctor's pulse quickened. "Go on," he prompted, his calm voice belying the excitement welling up inside him.

"Then it was just...all jumbled up after that. It kept changing. One minute I was talking to...to Charles Dickens, and the next minute I was one of the guests attending my mum and dad's wedding. Then there were all these, I dunno, creatures that I couldn't even begin to describe – it just kept getting weirder and weirder. And all the while that man, the man who was there at the start of the dream kept reappearing throughout." As she spoke, Rose's hand unconsciously went beneath the collar of her shirt and lifted the TARDIS key, fingering it absently.

The Doctor's eyes flicked to the key as he swallowed hard. Rose was remembering. The pieces were still scattered and they felt like a distant dream to her rather than a memory, but she was remembering. In time, surely this would grow stronger. He would still have to take this slow with her and couldn't shock her now by saying those outlandish dreams were real; she'd scarcely believe him anyway. But this was undeniable progress and the brightest ray of hope he'd had yet.

Rose couldn't quite meet his eyes once she'd finished telling him the dream. "So, this is where you tell me I don't need a neurologist but a psychiatrist, right?" she laughed slightly, shifting awkwardly in her seat.

The Doctor reached over and placed his hand on her arm. "Rose, those dreams might seem like strange and scattered nonsense now, but once more of your memories have been recovered you might find that some of what you've dreamed will start to make sense."

Rose furrowed her brow in thought. "Like...like maybe they're some kind of symbols representing something else?"

His gaze briefly flicked downward. "Something like that." The Doctor ventured a little further, highly interested in one element of her dream in particular. "Do you remember anything else? This man, for instance. Did he...have a name?"

Rose bit down on her bottom lip, her cheeks tinting red. If she told him the name her dreams had assigned to that man, he would undoubtedly know about another man she'd been dreaming of. Apparently the name 'Doctor' was lately occupying a large portion of her thoughts. Rose knew she had to be honest with him though, if he was going to help her sort through this.

She cleared her throat, shifting her eyes away from his as she made an almost inaudible admission. "He was called the Doctor." Rose then tried to rationalize it without making it sound like she was wholly infatuated with him to the point of him infiltrating and mixing with her dreams. "But I suppose that's just my mind trying to piece together present things and stick them with the jumbled thoughts in my head, trying to somehow make things fit, no matter how daft."

The Doctor took a breath, trying to keep his tone casual. "Daft as it may seem, I think in time you'll find those jumbled images will begin to make much more sense."

"So you don't think I'm crazy, then?" Rose asked with a chuckle.

The Doctor smiled at her slowly. "Oh, Rose Tyler, you have no idea just how brilliant you are."