A/N: Second instalment of the Flowers…

Five: Mille Fliori (2)

Rose opened her eyes to a world she didn't recognise. She sat up and looked around sleepily.

It was so unlike her home, back on the Powell estate; there was no concrete, no cars; no teenagers pushing buggies and yelling at screaming toddlers.

Just the endless, infinite flowers.

And what noise! Gone was the roar of a cheap car, the steady bustle of crowded pavements, the yells and shouts of chaotic adolescents that Rose had been so used to.

But this… this noise wasn't something she heard a lot. It sounded… natural.

The buzzes, the chirrups; the hums, the sounds she had only ever heard on nature programmes of the few times she'd visited her crazy aunt Phyllis.

Rose blinked; it seemed to be raining petals- she looked up and realised that she was lying beneath a blossom tree (its leaves were a deep orange) and was currently being rained heavily upon by soft, pale orange-yellow blossoms. As she focused on the petal that had drifted onto her nose, Rose remembered how she had fallen asleep on a planet called Mille Fliori- but where was the Doctor?

He was nowhere to be seen- Rose felt a quick stab of panic, but dismissed it immediately; the Doctor was fine, she knew he would look after himself. He would find her when he was ready; meanwhile… she needed to choose some flowers for Jackie.

Now… Rose thought, frowning. How do you choose flowers for someone from another planet? She looked around, noticed a break in the huge, towering flowers and decided to follow the path and see if any particular flowers grabbed her attention.

Now, the huge ones were out of the question, Rose decided; she could just imagine the difficulty of trying to get the things out of the ground, let alone finding a giant jug big enough for it to go in. Some nice, normal-sized ones would suffice, she reasoned.

She kept wandering, looking for some flowers that jumped out from the rest. At least she wasn't bored- the sheer variety of plants stretching from horizon to horizon never failed to impress her. She felt a small thrill when a patch of small white buds, not unlike daffodils, rustled and two huge eyes appeared.

"Hello, gorgeous aren't you beautiful?" She murmured to the little creature; about the same size and shape as a baby fallow deer, the creature blinked its huge eyes trustingly at her; its long nose twitching with curiosity. She reached out and stroked the baby animal gently between its huge ears; her large, saucer-like eyes closed in contentment. The coat of the animal glittered in the dappled light, speckled and decorated with a smattering of pale spots, like a fallow fawn- it's features were too big for it, like a baby- it's ear and eyes were huge, ready to be grown into.

After several minutes, the fawn eyes opened and looked at her lovingly before darting away, its tufty tail bobbing through the undergrowth like a white beacon. Rose watched her go, a mixture of sadness and happiness mingling inside her as she watched the creature dance away.

"Lovely, aren't they?" Came a familiar voice behind her. Rose didn't turn around when she felt the Doctor come to stand next to her, only reached out and took his hand.

"Yes- what are they?" She asked softly.

"A beginning of the fallow deer; the Caeli. Lovely creatures- very gentle." The Doctor replied, smiling at her. He paused. "Did you find Jackie's flowers?" Rose shook her head.

"These flowers are all so lovely- but that it, they're just flowers. Nothing special." Rose smiled thinly at the Doctor's huff. "What I mean is… I want something memorable; something Jackie can keep forever, and remember me when she sees it." The Doctor nodded slowly.

"How about… some nice Jaedria?" He nodded behind her; at the base of a huge tree- its trunk tinted slightly with lilac- grew some flowers. But… they weren't flowers, at the same time. Their petals seemed insubstantial- more like water than solid petals. They flowed and rippled- seeming unaffected by gravity- in every direction, a soft silver colour in the dappled light.

Rose loved them.

"They're beautiful." She breathed, lost for words- this was exactly what she had wanted- but she felt a small pang of sadness as she realised the lovely flowers would only last several days, and then would become a distant memory, eventually forgotten until nothing remained of the alien flowers that Rose so loved.

"The name means an infinite rose." The Doctor said softly next to her. He smiled at her raised eyebrow. "They don't die- this is the only patch of them for miles on Mille. They are beautiful, very rare and very valuable. Sounds like Jackie's sort of thing." He grinned, darting away from her hand.

"I can't take these," Rose said, saddened. They were so perfect. "They're too rare and beautiful- I'd be causing the extinction of a breed of flower because I wanted a gift for my mum." The Doctor shook his head.

"Oh come now two or three isn't going to wipe them out."

"Well…" Rose was still uncertain, but the Doctor ignored her trepidation and dropped to his stomach next to the flowers. Taken aback by the abrupt movement, Rose followed.

The Doctor had his nose almost touching a petal- going almost cross-eyed trying to look at it- and turned to look at her.

"Shall I?" he asked, eyeing the flower. He took Rose's silence as permission and cleared his throat. "Excuse me…"

Rose stared at her friend- just when she thought the Doctor couldn't surprise any more, he began talking to a plant; the serious look on his face indicating that he fully expected the flower to answer back. They waited in tense silence for several moments, before the Doctor snorted.

"How very rude." He huffed, indignantly. Rose struggled against a smile.

"Are you expecting a conversation?" she asked, unable to keep some of the laughter escaping into her voice. The Doctor shot her a dark look, like she'd just answered a phone in a church.

"Oh Miss Tyler- you're so human." He said, obviously miffed and turned back to the flower. He took a deep breath.

"OI!" He yelled; Rose flinched at the volume, but still the flower did nothing. If it had had ears, Rose thought, it most likely would have been deaf by now. She looked at the tiny silver plant sympathetically.

And then it rustled.

The plant shook itself, straightened and became immobile once more. Immediately, Rose heard a soft, almost weary voice in her head.

May I help?

The Doctor nodded. "Finally! - took you long enough."

Time Lords are not excused rudeness, Doctor.

Rose chuckled at the Doctor expression; he looked like he'd been slapped.

"Right, err… sorry." He said, like a scolded school boy caught with a hand in a sweet jar. He coughed. "Um, right… anyways"-

Your point, Doctor?

Rose looked side ways at the Doctor. "How comes it knows your name?" She asked, and then winced as a sharp pain lanced through her forehead.

Please refrain from generalizing me, miss Tyler. The voice sounded in her head. Rose thought it sounded mildly angry. Rose looked at her friend, who shrugged, grinning.

"Um, sorry." She muttered to the flower. The plant didn't reply. "Are you going to explain, Doctor?" she asked him- he only grinned lopsidedly.

"Did I mention that Jaedria also means 'the divine mind'?" the Doctor asked innocently. "Named such for their immense physic capacity?" He acknowledged her uncomprehending look. "They are the only plant that is evolved enough to think- well, in the human sense of the word, anyway."

"So…" Rose mumbled, still struggling to understand the concept of a talking flower. "It can… think. Like a human?"

Better, I believe, Miss Tyler. The flower now seemed almost amused. Now, back to the matter at hand… I believe you have a request?

"What? Oh yes!" The Doctor brightened and sneezed. "Ooh, sorry, pollen's getting to me… any-hoo, I was wondering if we could have some of your, ahem, stock?"

Rose stared at her friend, horrified at his words. "Doctor, they're real things, not rice!"

He laughed and shook his head. "Only this one that we're talking to- all of the others are just flowers." Rose frowned.

"How does that work?"

The Doctor groaned. "Well, Jaedria grow in 'flocks', with one as the- oh, never mind- too complicated; I'll explain another time." He straightened and turned back to the Jaedria and its little guard of 'regular' flowers.

"So…are any of them off-limits?"

I shall permit you one, and one only Time Lord. Jaedria are precious; and time has not been kind to our numbers.

"Right…" The Doctor muttered, and turned to one of the smaller, just-flowers flowers and rolled up his sleeves. "Now, this is going to take a while, Rose- feel free to wander if you want. Just don't get lost."

Rose ignored the comment and remained where she was. "Maybe later." In truth, she was curious to see what would happen.

The Doctor took a deep breath and started to hum softly, to a tune Rose didn't recognise, but instantly loved. She resisted the urge to close her eyes and sway, instead watched as her friend carefully ran his fingers down the delicate stem of a Jaedria, the tips skimming over the soft ridges with the tender expertise of someone handling a very rare, very fragile thing.

Rose blinked as she watched the stem of the plant ripple, as if the Doctor's touch tickled.

He continued to hum the haunting tune, and after several long seconds, Rose saw the plant wriggle slightly, and several of its roots disengaged from the soil. The Doctor paused then and winked at her.

"Kindly does it…" he murmured, and began the routine again- he would hum and stroke the stem for several minutes and then pause, each time more and more of the plant's roots loosened in the damp earth, until eventually, enough were loose that the Doctor could gently put his hands- his skin now stained black with dirt- under the leaves and pick the flowers up, delicately placing it in one of his huge outer pockets, like an newborn bird.

Rose stared at him. "I didn't know you could sing." She whispered, half-afraid to raise her voice, like if she were in the presence of sleeping baby, not a plant. The Doctor snorted softly.
"Singing and humming are not the same things."

Rose's eyebrows rose. "My singing teacher disagreed- she thought humming was what your singing voice is based on."

"Well, mine didn't…" The Doctor sniffed and turned back to the small dent in the earth. "I'll sort this out and then we can make our way back if you want."

Rose felt a rush of disappointment. "No! Do we have to leave?"

The Doctor smiled ruefully. "Unfortunately, yes- I'll bring you back another day, I promise. But for now, I'll sort out here and you go and have a last wander."

Rose nodded and set off, leaving her friend returning playing Gardner's World and talking to a flower.

* * *

For a while, Rose wandered.

Just let her feet guide her through fields of wheat-like stuff dotted with vivid red flowers not unlike poppies, and around lakes that were ringed with thousands of tiny flowers of all colours Rose could name- and a few that she knew had never existed on earth.

Eventually, after pushing through some satellite-dish sized (and shaped) blue flowers with soft red heads, Rose came into a clearing; the floor was coloured in a patchwork of red, green and orange and three massive, tree-tall flowers that had lusciously green stems and leaves with thin threads of blue and orange running through them like veins.

"I feel like a right midget." Rose said aloud, her voice echoing through the clearing as she stared up at the massive flowers above her, the comparison distinctly alike to that of staring up at her best friend from high school, Simon- who'd been a full head and a half taller than her throughout their entire time at school.

"You know talking to yourself is the first sign of madness." Came an amused voice behind her.

"And stalking people is the second." Rose retorted, grinning at her friend, who was leaning casually against the stem of another, equally large plant. He smiled and walked over to her. He took a silver watch from amidst his coat and studied it.

"Hmm… if I'm right we should be just on time." The Doctor muttered and then straightened. "Come, come, Tyler- we've got places to be!"

* * *

From their relatively solid position on the ground, Rose had followed the Doctor to a growth of spiny vines- he hadn't stopped to name them, only set about climbing them. Rose had stared after her friend for several seconds, before his head had reappeared and the Doctor had took her hand, hoisting her up the vines and through a break in the trees.

Above the treetops, Rose could see for miles in every direction- the view broken only by the occasional massive flower that blocked all sight. The two of them were currently sitting on the most bizarre flower Rose had ever encountered; it was a vivid orange, with longer petals on one side than the other- it gave to affect of the flower being tipped onto its side and the petals just flowing outwards onto the tops of the trees like water.

"It's lovely." Rose breathed; the warmth of the setting sun- which she could see clearly from their flower, burning passionately over the fringes of the trees - pleasant on her skin. She felt the Doctor chuckle- the action making his shoulders shake underneath her.

"Mille is a lovely place- even if you don't like flowers." He agreed, and, almost too quietly for it to be intended for her ears, Rose heard him add, in a murmur. "Alina loved flowers too."

Rose couldn't decide whether it had been directed at her or not, so she didn't reply; despite her enormous curiosity- the Doctor had never mentioned an Alina before...

A thought struck her and she grinned. Hey, she thought happily. Xiea was right- I have met talking plants and seen flowers taller than me! I wonder how she knew…

Her thoughts were interrupted, however when the Doctor shifted slightly, and she almost fell off him.

"Hey!" she cried as she tumbled sideways off the Doctor's shoulder onto the flower; his arm shot out and caught her before she tipped too far. He laughed and fumbled around in one of his many pockets for several minutes before he found what he was looking for.

"Here," He said and handed her a smooth, circular object. Rose looked at her friend in puzzlement as she turned the thing over in her hands.

It fit perfectly in her hand, almost as if it had been made solely for that purpose; made of some strange substance not unlike glass, it shone like polished metal, glittering in the dying light. But it wasn't entirely... substantial, Rose thought; the material swirled inside the glass-like stuff looked like it could float through her fingers, gliding through the air inside like ribbons. To her skin, it felt like silk, and yet it looked more like mist.

"What is it?" Rose breathed, and then gasped as she moved her fingers slightly, and the centre of the object was revealed.

The most beautiful flower Rose had ever seen lay at the centre; its breathtaking splendour bringing tears to her eyes- its pale petals were spread in a perfect fan around the head; tiny, fragile veins draped over their surfaces like the daintiest of latticework. The whole structure glowed with an ethereal light, making Rose's face glow faintly.

"It's yours." Came the quiet, almost embarrassed reply.

"Oh..." She whispered, at loss of words at the beauty of the gift. "...mine?"

He nodded- were those red spots appearing on his cheeks? - Rose thought, half-amused, half-touched by such a kind gesture.

Lost for words, she leaned over and enveloped him in a huge hug. She thought dimly of how nice he smelled- a scent she couldn't name that seemed wholly his own; a mixture of pine and mint and sunshine and things she couldn't fathom, but it was a scent she recognised easily, even more so than her own. The Doctor froze when her arms encircled his shoulders, as if in surprise, but gradually the tension melted and he softened to her touch. He returned the hug, holding her so tightly, like a drowning man- Rose thought nothing of the heat of his hands on her back, but a small part of her mind- quiet and in a deep recess within her head, so far away from her conscious thoughts that she didn't even hear it; the voice that whispered in approval and hummed with pleasure at the contact. But she heard none of it, and, blissfully ignorant of her unconscious enjoyment, existed only in her universe, where Rose Tyler was holding on tightly like she was going to die if she didn't, hugging her friend, the Doctor. An alien who she loved dearly, and couldn't live without anymore.

"Thank you." She whispered in her friend's ear, and felt him hug her even more tightly in response.

Behind them, the last of dying embers scattered across the treetops faded as the sun dipped below the horizon, casting all in calm twilight.

A/N: Bit of a long one there, sorry... oh well. Next chapter in a fortnight or earlier, if I can manage it...

Reviews?