This guy was meant for me and I was meant for him
"This is weird stuff," the Doctor states the next morning, finally setting down the lab report Anna had given him.
Unfortunately, there is no one around to hear him. Most of the time he's happy in his lab, being left to his own devices when he's not needed in the field or stuck in a meeting. Rose will come in most days, and other people tend to wander in throughout the day. When it comes to making impressive pronouncements, though, you can't beat an audience.
Calling up the full field report on his computer, he scans the details of the field operation. Then he runs the collection, looking at the photos. It seems pretty routine on the surface. Crash site, no signs of life. Just the rock recovered. No signs of radiation.
It's a small piece of rock, only several centimeters wide and a few more long. No visible markings. But it's unlike any material, organic or manmade, that's found on Earth. On this Earth, anyway.
He's seen a lot of things, but with no computer of his own, the TARDIS computer, it's hard to classify this thing. This annoys him. Even though he knows there's nothing he can do about it, the fact that there's another version of himself in a parallel world, swanning about with the TARDIS computer, irritates him.
The TARDIS computer and the sonic screwdriver. He still hasn't built a proper replacement for that, either.
After an hour he's no closer to an answer.
"You are perplexing," he tells the rock. "Time was I'd have the answer out of you without breaking a sweat and have time left over to save the world."
"You haven't been talking to it, have you?" Jake asks from the doorway.
"Hello, Jake. I was just...conversing with this hunk of evidence." Hearing the words come out of his mouth makes him wince. Well, at least he hasn't licked it.
"One alien to another, yeah? Come on, we have an assignment."
"Oh? Where's Rose?"
"Waiting for us."
"Why didn't you just call me?"
"We did," Jake says pointedly. "No answer."
"Really? That's...oh." Having looked all around, the Doctor spots his phone underneath a pile of journals. "Oops. Got switched off somehow. Sorry."
"No need to apologize to me, Doctor." Jake has gotten used to this man, who at once is and isn't an alien. "Rose didn't look too happy, though."
The Doctor stops in the middle of putting on his jacket and putting his headset in his ear. "She didn't? Why not?"
Jake shrugs and heads for the door. "Don't know."
The Doctor's mind is whirling with possibilities as he and Jake walk outside to meet Rose by the car. He's paying no attention to the briefing Jake is giving him. As they meet Rose, he greets her with, "What's wrong?"
Rose, in the middle of starting the car, looks back at him. "There's nothing wrong," she says in surprise. "Is there?"
Well. He can't very well tell her he's been waiting for her to change her mind about the house, about staying with him, about everything, can he? That would make him look desperate, and according to all those girly magazines she has around the flat, no woman wants a desperate man.
They don't mention desperate aliens, but he assumes the spirit of the thing is the same.
"Nothing's wrong," he says, getting in the car. "Where are we going?"
"I just told you," Jake says in surprise.
"Have you hit your head?" Rose asks.
oOoOo
After they return to Torchwood, Jake leaves to turn in their weapons. Rose goes to her office to write up the mission report.
"Shall I email it to you?" she asks the Doctor. "You can read it over before you sign off."
"Absolutely," he agrees. There is a fifty-fifty chance that he will actually read it.
Rose waits. "Are you coming?" Usually he likes to watch as she types and correct her facts. After a few minutes of that he'll take over the typing. That's Rose's favorite part, watching him type faster than he's ever been able to before.
"No, I've got some stuff to finish up."
Rose nods slowly. "Okay. See you later."
In the back of his mind the Doctor is aware that he's acting all odd and distant, but the truth is that he's distracted. The alien find is holding his attention and curiosity. Heading back to his lab, he reads over the lab reports again.
When he resurfaces it is well past leaving time. Outside the window London is dark. He curses under his breath. Either Rose is waiting for him, which means he'll have to make it up to her, or she left without him. He doesn't like it when she goes home alone at night, and no matter that she's well capable of defending herself.
A quick check of his mobile phone shows no messages. Calling down to her office, and then Jake's, he gets no response.
Well. He'll have to be an adult and face her at home.
Despite his reservations, though, she's not angry at all. It's not usual for him to forget about her, not at all, but it's not the first time it's happened. They don't always work on the same schedule.
"You were busy with something," she greets him at their flat. "Figured I'd come home and eat without you."
"You could have called up," he counters, kicking off his shoes and falling into the couch beside her.
"Could have," she agrees. "Maybe I thought I'd see if you noticed." She slants him a sideways glance.
"Notice what?" he asks.
"If I was there or not."
"Rose, don't be silly." He can't help feeling wrong-footed here, like he's done something he shouldn't have done. Rose has a bowl of popcorn on her lap, and he absently swipes a handful.
"Is this dinner?"
"Did you make something else?" she asks politely.
Oh. She is a bit upset with him.
"No," he says slowly. "I didn't. Shall we get some takeaway?" he asks hopefully.
"Don't feel like it," Rose says breezily.
He sighs heavily. "How long am I supposed to feel terrible for forgetting you?"
She considers it. "A few more minutes."
He sits in silence for maybe 30 seconds. 36, to be exact. "Now?"
"Not yet."
23 seconds later, "Now?"
"No."
"Rose, this is the outside of enough. Really."
She breaks down and smiles at him. "It's okay. Sorry I left without you."
"You know I don't like you to leave alone."
"I wasn't alone. I walked out with Simon."
"All the way home?"
"Well, no, but honestly, Doctor, I can take care of myself, yeah?"
He knows she can. The image of her running to him on a dark street, black gun in hand, will always be with him. He's seen her handle weapons since then, although not often. He does not disapprove of them so much anymore, but he rarely sees the need for them.
Although, if he is completely honest with himself, Rose Tyler with a gun is...well, Jackie would kill him if she knew his thoughts on that subject, so better not to dwell on that right now. Although according to Rose's girly magazines, the correct term would be "hot". It is vaguely wrong to feel so attracted to the image of Rose carrying a gun, but human hormones don't always listen to reason. He's been discovering this over the past few weeks.
"Of course you can, Rose. No one knows that better than me, after all." And that is the truth. She's faced down Dalek emperors and beasts and werewolves, and the other image that will be with him for the rest of his life is of Rose, bathed in a a golden light with tears streaming down her face as she saved his life once more, thousands of years in the future and several lifetimes ago.
"All right, then," he says, banishing Bad Wolf from his thoughts. "Dinner? What do you feel like?"
"Chinese?"
"Mmm. How about Italian?"
"Indian."
"Italian."
"Deal."
Over a dinner of pizza and chips (Rose's order made the waitress frown in puzzlement) he tells her about the alien object.
"I've never seen anything like it," he concludes, winding up his presentation by waving a breadstick in the air.
"All right," Rose says slowly, "so it's new. But does that mean it's new to this place, or just new to you?"
"To me?"
"Maybe you just haven't seen it before. Maybe it's as common as plastic on alien planets in this universe."
"Come on, Rose, this is different."
"You keep saying that, but different how? If I'm gonna get worked up over something I want to have some proof."
"Listen to you," he says admiringly. "All scientific and stuff."
"Shut up." But she does flush pink a bit. "Been listening to you too long is all."
"Still, you have a point," he says thoughtfully. "I'll run some tests on it tomorrow."
Rose chews a chip. "All we need to do is figure out where it came from. Find the aliens who brought it to Earth."
"Should be easy enough," he agrees.
"Dessert?" The waitress has come back, holding out the check and dessert menus.
"No thanks," he says absently. "I'm watching my figure."
Mortified, Rose grabs the menus and sends the waitress away.
"I don't care about any genetic meta-crisis," she hisses. "Never say that in public again!"
"Say what?" he asks around a mouthful of pizza.
"You're watching your figure? You've no reason to watch your figure! Honestly."
"Did I say that out loud? Thought I was just thinking it."
"You banish that bit of Donna right out of your vocabulary," Rose tells him. "Right now."
"You know me. When I have ever turned down dessert?" He waves the waitress back over. "I'll have to work on that."
Despite herself, Rose can't help laughing. To appease her sense of mortification, the Doctor orders two pieces of chocolate cake and eats them all. Rose is forced to agree that this will indeed show the waitress he's not watching his figure.
oOoOo
When they've gone back home Rose picks up the mail, ignores the answering machine's blinking red light, and heads for the couch. The Doctor pauses in the hallway to hang up his coat and pushes the play button. Jackie's voice comes out, and he quickly shuts it off.
"Was that Mum?" she calls.
"Uh, bad connection," he calls back. She can call Jackie tomorrow, once he's left the flat. Or from her office, once he's no longer in it.
When he joins Rose in the living room, she's munching on leftover popcorn and sorting through the mail. The news is on the television, just in case there's an alien invasion they've missed.
"How can you still be hungry?" he asks her, taking the bowl away. "You'll make yourself sick."
"Says the man who ate half a pizza and most of a cake for dinner." She takes the bowl of popcorn back and hands him a magazine instead. "This must be yours. It says 'new subscriber' on it. Is that you?"
He takes it from her and looks at the cover. Lights!Camera!Action!, the premier magazine for movie buffs and the movie industry.
"Yup, it's mine."
"Since when you are interested in the movies?" Beyond a hobby of screening science fiction films so he can torture himself over how inaccurate they are, he usually doesn't care all that much about television or movies.
"I like to keep in touch with the mainstream," he says loftily.
"What's that mean?"
"I don't know. I like it, though." He opens up the magazine and starts scanning the table of contents.
Rose watches him for a moment, not sure what to make of this. The man has already earned a doctorate in physics since he's been here, and is being pursued by five separate universities on three continents. He's written an article on astronomy that sent the scientific community into convulsions just two months back. They finally decided he was correct on his theory and awarded him honorary memberships into various societies. He can track aliens and he stays with her because he wants to. And he's reading a movie magazine.
"You are bonkers," Rose tells him finally.
"Excuse me?"
"You just make no sense sometimes. None."
He clearly doesn't understand what she's talking about, which honestly, makes her love him even more. Well, let him enjoy the movies. At least he's not bringing home teddy bears. Even as Rose thinks this she glances guiltily over at the trash can in the kitchen, where three small teddy bears are wrapped in newspaper, awaiting next trash day. He's admitted that he can't help it - he sees them and he has to buy them. Rose is doing her best to wait it out, hoping that it will fade in time.
When he brings home something just for her, though, like that sweet little toy turtle last week...well, not all stuffed toys are bad.
She looks back to him and jumps. He's lowered his magazine and is staring at her.
"What?" she asks defensively. If he's choosing to try and read her mind he'll surely figure out what's happened to the toys he's bought in the last few weeks.
"I was just going to ask you the same thing," the Doctor says slowly.
"Oh? About what?"
He rolls his eyes. "Come on, let's get to bed. It's late." He stands up and holds his hand out to her. His expression is hopeful enough that she can tell he's hoping it's not too late.
For a moment Rose is transported back to another time, a Christmas night with snow that wasn't snow falling down around them, and a man in a brown suit holding out his hand and asking her with his eyes to take it. Smiling, she takes his hand now, lets herself be pulled up and into his embrace.
Later, before she falls asleep, she remembers something.
"Hey," she whispers.
He murmurs something in response.
"You asleep?" she asks innocently.
"I was." He rolls over and regards her in the dim light. "What is it?"
Rose feels a bit foolish, but better safe than sorry. "Did you mean it, what you said this morning?"
He shifts again, getting comfortable as he faces her. "Did I mean what this morning? I said a great many things, most of which you either ignored or discounted."
"I don't mean about horoscopes and stuff. I meant...are we gonna look for a bigger place to live?"
He props his head up on his arm. "I thought we'd agreed to." He sounds like he's upset but he doesn't want her to know it. That reassures Rose more than almost anything else could. "Do you not want to?"
"No, I do!" she assures him quickly. "I do. I was just making sure you did."
He chuckles and pulls her close to him. "I meant it, Rose Tyler. Every word."