Huge thanks to my lovely beta, LastIncurableRomantic.

~oOo~

The soldering iron slipped, and Rose burned her finger. Sucking on the injured digit, she surveyed the pile of electronics scattered on the table. After dropping Liam off at the airport three days ago, she had practically been living in her lab. It had been a good thing in many ways. Several of Pinnacle's biggest projects were now well ahead of schedule, including her own translator.

Locking herself here had also been her way of hiding from John Smith. She had told him that she needed time and would call him when she was ready, and in an unexpected turn of events, he'd respected her wishes. Only now she was missing him something fierce. Her mobile was back in her office. It would only take a minute to pop in there and grab it. Maybe they could have dinner tonight, watch a movie at her place, something.

She was halfway out of her chair when there was a knock at the door. Relief filled her at what was hopefully a long delay. It wasn't the first time that Roe had wanted to call John and had chickened out at the last minute. There was no other way to put it; she was a coward.

Clara stuck her head inside. "Sorry to bother you, boss."

"No, it's fine. Come in," Rose replied lightly. Over the past few days Clara had been a life saver, always making sure that Rose had tea or ate. She had also fielded phone calls from her mum, Sarah Jane and Martha. Her friends and family meant well, but Rose just didn't want to talk to them about the breakup right now.

Clara stepped all the way into the room. "I was just wondering how much longer you were going to sulk in here. Do I need to call a contractor and have them add in a bedroom?"

Turning her back to her friend, Rose perched on a table. "I know I've been pretty bad."

"You can say that again," Clara snorted. Walking across the room, she sat down next to her boss. "It's not going to get any easier, you know. By locking yourself in here, nothing gets solved."

Slowly, Rose nodded. "I know. It's just, there's a history there, with John. I can't even explain it. And things with Liam just ended. Moving on so quickly…" She frowned. "I know what I want. The other day I was so sure, but there is this little niggling doubt. I'm just not sure that he'll want me. Not in a few months, when it's time for him to leave again."

"There is one thing I have learned and it's that sitting around thinking about how other people are going to react solves nothing." Clara stood and dragged Rose to her feet. "You need to talk to John, the sooner the better. Come on, I'm taking you home and you're not allowed back here until you have a conversation with him."

"Thanks, Clara, for everything you've done in the last week," Rose said, letting Clara lead her out of the lab.

The brunette bumped her friend's shoulder. "Anytime."

~oOo~

It had been four days since he'd been released from jail. Four days since he'd seen or heard from Rose Tyler. At least John hadn't heard from her until about twenty minutes ago when he'd gotten a text message from her.

Can you come over? I'm round back, on the deck. Dress warmly.

Immediately, he replied that he would be right over. Quickly he threw on a pair of jeans, his trainers, and a jumper and grabbed his thick coat, gloves and toboggan. He had no desire to end up back in the hospital with hypothermia again. Now, he was exactly where he wanted to be, near Rose Tyler.

"You coming up or are you just going to stand over there all night?" she called from a deck chair. "I've got hot chocolate spiked with Bailey's."

"Sorry, I was just… thinking," John replied, walking over carefully onto the deck. The only light was coming from a half full moon. Gently he lay down in the chair next to her.

Rose shifted so that she was facing him. "Penny for them?"

"Just glad that you wanted to see me again. After what happened the other night, I didn't know if you would want to. You don't deserve to be treated like that. I'm sorry I acted like a, like a stupid ape." He sank deeper into the plush cushion.

Rose giggled, sounding like she'd already had a few spiked drinks herself. "Well, those primitive urges can be a difficult thing to deal with. We mere apes sometimes cannot control ourselves, John." Rose sniggered. He wasn't sure what she'd found so funny, but it was good to hear her laughter again. Soon enough he was laughing right alongside of her.

After a minute and a few mugs of the heavy on the Baileys hot chocolate, John moved his chair right next to hers. He hoped it wasn't too forward of a move, or too soon. It wasn't. Rose wrapped her small hand around his and squeezed. Her skin was cold from being exposed to the night air and he tucked both of their hands away in his jacket pocket to keep them warm. They sat there in compatible silence for a while. John simply enjoyed the fact that they were together.

"I ended things with Liam," she said softly, her eyes fixed on the stars above them. "For good this time, not the ambiguous way we left things when I moved here. He needs to find someone who he deserves, someone who deserves him. Someone better than me."

He squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back. More than anything, he wanted to tell her that there was no one better than her. That Liam was the one who didn't deserve her and that any man in the Universe would be lucky to have her, but just this once, he held back. This wasn't about how he felt about her. "And are you okay with that?"

This time she looked over at him. "Yeah, I think I am. Liam and I… We were nice, comfortable, fun, but we weren't meant to be."

"You deserve to be happy, Rose. We all do," John said in earnest. She clasped his hand tightly for a few seconds before turning back to look up at the sky.

"So, what have you been up to the last few days?" asked Rose, trying to change the subject. "Any progress on your book?"

Grinning, he told her that he had, in fact, made substantial progress on his book. However, he wasn't ready to share it quite yet. She would be the first to read it, he assured her. Only if she wanted to, of course.

She assured him that she would be ecstatic to read his book. They spent the next hour or so talking about everything and nothing. When the hot chocolate ran out, Rose went inside and grabbed a bottle of tequila and a blanket. Making him budge up, she settled into his chair and snuggled with him in the warmth of the scratchy wool covering. The bottle was passed between them until John was feeling more than a little buzzed.

"Do you ever think about what it would be like to travel there? To the stars." Rose's voice was slurred slightly. "Not like an astronaut but to visit all of those other worlds."

John felt his heart swell. "I do. Sometimes I have these mad dreams. I'm an adventurer, a traveller. Almost like one of those men in sci-fi movies. I'm an alien called the Doctor." Next to him, he felt Rose tense. "Are you alright?"

"Course I am. Tell me more. Please?" She relaxed and snuggled closer. "Do you travel alone? In your dreams."

"Occasionally, but I also travel with friends. Companions, I call them." His fingers traced lightly down the arms of her jacket. "Lately, I've been dreaming that you travel with me, and we go to the most extraordinary places." He purposely didn't tell her about his nightmares of the Doctor losing his Rose. It must have been his subconscious way of working through the whole Liam situation and he would simply ignore the fact that those dreams started before the other man's arrival. "I remember the Doctor feeling so lonely and then he met his Rose and they saved each other."

"Mmm," Rose replied, sounding a little distracting. "Better with two."

"Exactly, Rose Tyler. I knew you'd understand." He pressed a kiss into her hair. "Would you come with me? With the Doctor, I mean?"

Rose let out a sigh. "Might do, Doctor. Where would we go first?"

With a laugh, John shifted and pointed at a star. "That one."

"Yeah?"

"I'd take you to every single one if I could, Rose." His hand tightened on her arm.

"That would be nice." Idly, Rose played with the zipper on his jacket. "John…"

"Hmm?"

"I like you. Maybe even fancy you..." Warmth flooded through his entire body at her words. "It's just... I don't know how… There are things, stuff that needs to be worked out."

As she stumbled over the words, he realized that this may be too soon after the end of her engagement. "If you need more time, I'll understand. I won't like it, but I'll understand."

"No, it's not that."

"Then what is it?" In the back of his mind he was afraid this was another brush off.

"You remind me of someone," Rose admitted in a rush. "This… this man I once knew. Like you, he was a great guy, sweet when he wanted to be, funny, and completely, utterly brilliant."

"Oh," John said, unsure of where she was going with this. Did she only like him because he reminded her of this bloke? "Who was he? An ex-boyfriend?"

She sighed and turned to look at the night sky. "No, definitely not my boyfriend. He was my best mate, though. We travelled together. I was young and completely, madly in love with him and I thought that he felt the same way, maybe he did. Still didn't stop him from taking me for granted. One day when I thought that I knew for sure he'd be alright without me, I left him."

"Where is he now?" he asked, studying her.

"I sort of haven't seen him since that day. I think he's lonely, but he never came back for me. Probably didn't want to interfere with my life or something. At least that's what he'd say." Rose turned towards him. "I didn't date anyone for five years after him."

John wanted to know more about this man that Rose seemed to be comparing him to, but he had to be careful not to push her. "Do you miss him?"

"Sometimes, yeah. But like I said in the lab that day, life's about moving forward, you know." Rose flexed her hand on his chest. Her voice sounded tired. "I guess my point is, I like you, John, and I'm not as naïve as I was when I met him, but I could still get hurt."

"I'd never hurt you, Rose. I want to spend every day of the rest of my life cherishing you." He dropped his gaze to her lips, darting his tongue out to wet his own.

Pushing herself up, Rose's cold lips met his. The kiss was soft and over before it really started. From that moment he knew that he'd never get enough of this. Anything Rose Tyler had to offer, he wanted.

"Please don't hurt me, John," Rose whispered, burying her face in his neck.

"Never," he promised, holding her tightly to him. A small contented noise escaped from her before she drifted off to sleep. If it wasn't so cold out here, he'd be content to stay out here all night with her, but it was bloody freezing. After a few minutes he gathered her up his arm and effortlessly carried her upstairs.

Removing her jacket and boots, he tucked her under the covers and kissed her cheek. "Goodnight, Rose," he whispered before slipping out of the room. As he walked down the stairs, the effects of the alcohol made him a bit unsteady on his feet. Probably best if he walked home. He zipped up his jacket and pulled down his hat and headed outside and down the street. Tonight was hopefully just the start of brilliant things to come.

~oOo~

With the last of the payroll numbers completed, Rose sent the file back to the home office. She'd worked through lunch to catch up on the paper work she'd neglected in favour of her lab. Not that she minded. Her stomach was still slightly unsettled from the copious amounts of alcohol she had consumed last night. She wasn't sure how John's human body was coping with the after effects of the alcohol. Part of her hoped that he was suffering a few ill effects as pay back for those mornings that the Doctor had touted his superior biology. It would serve him right when he woke up with memories of that.

Her phone rang, derailing her train of thought. "Pinnacle Enterprises, Rose Tyler speaking," she answered, leaning back in her chair.

"Hello, gorgeous. How's life in the mountains?" Immediately, she recognized Jack's voice. "It's been almost two weeks since I've heard from you, sweetheart. I had to learn about the break up with Liam from Martha. You haven't been answering anyone's calls and have only sent vague email messages. If your assistant hadn't put the call through just now I would have been on the next plane out there. Is everything alright?

Rose pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm fine, the Doctor's fine, the TARDIS is fine, and I've just been busy, Jack, with Liam's surprise visit, John being in the hospital and then the two of them spending the night in jail for fighting." The rest of the story came out in a rush including what had happened last night but not what was in the message that the Doctor had left just for her. That was something that she wanted to keep just for herself. When she was done she felt relieved now that she was finally able to talk to someone about everything that had been going one. Someone who knew the whole story. God, she missed Jack.

"So what are you going to do about John?" Jack's voice was teasing. "I mean you kissed him. Are you going to play that off as being drunk, or are you going to take my advice and shag John Smith senseless? Because I was halfway joking then, Rosie. I mean what's the Doctor going to say when he wakes up and you've been dating someone with his face?"

"I was wrong, Jack," she sighed.

"What?"

"When I said that John wasn't the Doctor. He is. I know he is. He hasn't got the Doctor's memories but who he is underneath, that's all Doctor." Rose's mobile buzzed on the desk. "The Doctor is… it's almost like he's leaking through into John. Especially in his dreams. It's hard to explain." Picking up her mobile, she read a text message from the man in question.

How are you feeling after last night?

Deftly she typed her answer, Not too bad, I've had worse hangovers. She smiled, remembering the night Jack had introduced her to hypervodka and how upset her leather clad Doctor had been the next day.

"I believe you, Rose. Even after all that time apart, you'd know," Jack said on the other end of the phone. "Just be careful. You're just coming off the end of a long-term relationship and I'd hate to see you get hurt."

Her phone buzzed again. "Thanks, Jack, for everything. I gotta run, and I promise I won't go so long between calls."

"I'll talk to you soon. Love you, Rosie."

"Love you too, Jack," she said as she rang off and read the message from John.

Sounds like you're doing better than me.

Undoubtedly true, even though she'd drunk more than he had. She had the benefit of years of dealing with the after effects.

Well, maybe I just have superior biology. She typed back. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility, not with her quick healing.

It only took a moment for his reply to come in. Haha Remind me to never drink that much again.

Rose was about to counter with a cheeky comment when another text came in from John. Dinner tonight? My treat.

Four little innocent words, and her answer to them could change the entire course of her relationship with John Smith and ultimately with the Doctor. Even more than her drunken confessions last night. There was no more doubt in her mind where she wanted this to go, and it was high time she stopped running from it.

It's a date. Pick me up at 6pm. You're taking me someplace nice.