Chapter Two
"So," said Donna racing around the console "where to next? I thought we'd try the planet Felspoon, what a good name Felspoon; apparently it's got mountains that sway in the breeze! Mountains that move can you imagine?" she said skipping around the TARDIS flicking switches and pulling leavers, unaware of the strange looks Rose and The Doctor where giving her.
"And how do you know that?" The Doctor asked, somewhat sadly
"Because it's in your head," Donna cheerfully stated "and if it's in your head, it's in mine" she beamed
"And how does that feel?" asked Rose, trying to sense what The Doctor was heading to.
"Brilliant, fantastic Molto Bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain. You know you could fix that chameleon circuit if you tried hot-binding the fragment links and super-seeding the binary, binary, binary, binary-" she stuttered before taking a deep breath and exclaiming "I'm fine!" with a teary smile. "Nah never mind Felspoon you know who I've always wanted to meet, Charlie Chaplin! Great Charlie Chaplin, shall we do that? Meet Charlie Chaplin, shall we? Charlie Chaplin, Charlie Chester, Charlie brown, wait no he's fiction, friction, fixton, mixing, Brixton." She clung to the console with a deep breath.
Rose ran over to her to see if she was okay, feeling alarmed at the look on The Doctors face "Do you know what's happening?" he asked Donna. She rose up her head sadly, "Yeah" she said. Rose was still looking confused so she turned to The Doctor, a questioning look in her eye.
"There's never been a human time-lord meta-crisis before," he quickly explained to Rose, "and you know why," he turned back to Donna.
"Because there can't be,"
"All that timelord knowledge in your head, it's burning you up, killing you. I have to remove it,"
"But you can't!" Donna shouted "Because then what I'll go back to boring Donna. Doctor all this knowledge, could you ever let go of this?" she asked
"But Donna I learnt that knowledge, through schooling and experience you've had it poured into your mind all in one night and it hurts, doesn't it? You can feel it burning even now, so let it go Donna let me take it away. I promise it won't burn anymore"
"No, no, please!" she pleaded as The Doctor placed his fingers on her temple, and sucked the knowledge back into his own mind, and then Donna collapsed onto the floor.
"Is she going to be okay?" Rose asked
"Yeah, I got it out, she'll sleep for a while and we'll drop her off home with her granddad. Leave her to rest for a bit and then pick her up in a few days, if she still wants to travel that is" The Doctor said, laying Donna down gently.
"Her granddad's really nice, I met him." Rose said smiling at the memory "but what do we do whilst we're waiting for her?" Rose asked.
"Well, I think we definitely need to have a talk." The Doctor said, staring at her straight in the eyes.
Rose just nodded, avoiding his eyes; as he got up to silently fly the TARDIS to Donna's. They rang the door and an excited Wilf answered it, but his excitement vanished when he saw Donna lying in their arms. He helped them upstairs and they quickly settled her on her bed, and then Rose and The Doctor explained to Wilf and Sylvia what had happened.
"But Doctor, are you leaving her here forever?" He asked, not giving the Doctor a chance to reply. "She needs you, both of you, she's having a better life with you" Wilf said. Rose sadly smiled at the memory of a similar conversation she had with her mum and Mickey, after The Doctor sent her home. Wilf was right, it was a better life. The words rang in her ears, and she looked up at The Doctor, realising just how much better it really was, now that she was by his side.
"Once she's up and about in a few days, we'll stop by, and if she still wants to travel she can. Me and Rose have some catching up to do anyway, and we'll be here, in a week tops." The Doctor promised, as he and Rose began to head out. Rose smiled at Wilf and said "honestly we'll be here, as long as this one gets his timing right!" she nodded at The Doctor who laughed. She looked down at their entwined fingers; she hadn't even noticed that they were holding hands. It was such a natural gesture between them both; it was like a way of expressing all the unspoken words between them both. Un-spoken words that she hoped would be spoken soon.
They walked back to the TARDIS hand in hand, and Rose really contemplated the day.
"It's been a hard day right?" The Doctor said, gripping onto her hand
"Oh yeah," Rose said with a laugh, a laugh that quickly turned into more of a whimper, and then a light cry. The doctor pulled her into his chest, and stood there in the rain hugging her for a long time. The hug itself could've lasted for minuets, hours or days, Rose didn't know. All she could register was the look in The Doctor's eye as he leant back, still holding her round the waist as he asked her, "how long are you going to stay with me?" and she just smiled, leant into his ear and wearily whispered forever.
Rose carried on crying into the doctor's shoulder, and he held her all the way back to the TARDIS. The TARDIS hated seeing her Rose upset, and quickly adjusted the air to dry them instantly, and moved her room as near as she could. The Doctor was now carrying Rose bridal style as she sobbed into his neck for the loss of her family, and for the relief of being reunited with The Doctor and for hatred of the daleks. He sat down on her bed cradling her, and he smoothed down her hair giving her a light kiss on the temple.
After five minuets or so she sat up a little bit, and looked at him, drying her eyes. "Sorry," she said "I got mascara on your shirt"
"Its fine," he said "as long as you're okay." She looked at him and smiled, sadly. He felt a twinge in his hearts for causing this much upset to one little human, for wrecking her life. If he had never asked her to come with him, she would've gone on her normal life, bored but safe and that was all he ever wanted Rose to be, safe. And he knew she would never be safe with him, but that was a sacrifice that she was willing to make to be with her. He cursed himself for falling in love with her, if she had been just another companion, another good mate, it would have hurt yes, but been slightly easier. She probably wouldn't have even bothered with the dimension cannon, or maybe even gone with her family voluntarily back at the battle of canary wharf. Safe.
But then he realised how many times she had kept the universe safe, countless times she had saved his life, and the civilizations singing songs of The Doctor and his Rose, the big bad wolf. Banished and knighted on the same day by good old queen Victoria, and how she had healed all the battle scars left on his heart and mind, and how without her, he would've been dead a long time ago. How the Slitheen probably would've taken over the planet or the daleks would've destroyed the universe in 200100 or all kinds of catastrophic events that she had stopped and he realised in some ways, life would be too dangerous without her on the TARDIS.
"what'cha thinkin' 'bout doctor?" Rose half asked-half sniffed, studying him intently.
He quickly snapped out of his daze and met her eyes, "you, me, mostly you." He answered honestly.
Rose was a little taken aback; she hadn't expected a straight answer out of The Doctor, because he never gave them. Let alone voluntarily give up emotional, personal thoughts, especially when they considered her. She cuddled closer to him slightly, and he slinked his arms around her waist.
"I meant what I said on the beach Rose." The Doctor finally said after they sat in silence for a bit
"I meant it too, back the first time around" she said
"Quite right too" he joked, receiving a half slap on the arm from Rose. She giggled a bit, and then her expression turned serious.
"Seriously though doctor, what are going to do about it?"
The Doctor sighed "All I know Rose, is that I love you, and whenever I things, they usually ends up ruined. So do you want to just go with it? Take it slow and whatever happens, happens?"
Rose smiled, and gave him a light, chaste kiss on the lips "yeah, I like the sound of that" she said
oOo
The next morning Rose awoke first and felt hands grasped protectively around her waist. She gently turned over and saw the face of The Doctor, asleep, looking as peaceful as she'd ever seen him. The Doctor had never slept much, and once confided in her it was usually because he had nightmares involving the time war. She stroked his peaceful face. Her doctor, her tortured soldier. She looked down under the covers, realising they were still in the clothes from last night and remembered vaguely sitting up with The Doctor talking all night. She must have fallen asleep on him, how embarrassing. She gently turned her back once again to The Doctor, and snuggled lightly into his arms feeling really, properly safe for the first time in a long time.
About fifteen minutes later, Rose had slipped back into a peaceful slumber, and the doctor began to stir. He was a bit surprised at first, as he wasn't used to waking up with a warm weight in his hands, especially not a blonde one. He soon gathered that he and Rose must have fallen asleep the night before like this, and he liked it. He quickly gave her a light kiss on her temple, and set about making breakfast.
Yeah breakfast in bed, humans like that sort of thing right? He thought to himself.
He found his way to the kitchen, and quickly grabbed an apron off of the hook. Unfortunately for him, it was pink and frilly bloody TARDIS sense of humour. He shrugged his shoulders, and tied it round his waist anyway and set about making his famous bacon pancakes that he knew Rose had always loved when had travelled together.
oOo
About half an hour later, Rose emerged from her slumber. She was a bit disappointed at first that The Doctor wasn't there next to her, but once she heard odd sounds from the kitchen, she hoped he was making bacon pancakes. She quickly peeled off the clothes from yesterday, and hung her little blue leather jacket in the wardrobe and chucking the others into the hamper. She found all of her old wardrobe in there, and gave a silent thank you to the TARDIS. She pulled out an old oversized concert t-shirt that she had gotten from a crappy music festival Shareen had dragged her out to when she was seventeen. She quickly pulled on some knee-high socks and slightly tousled her hair, deciding to just leave it how it was; after all it was only breakfast.
As The Doctor saw Rose walk in, he gasped and dropped an egg on the floor. Why did she have to underestimate how beautiful she was? Even in an old baggy t-shirt and some long socks, with her hair all over the place, she stilled appeared to be some kind of goddess. He soon realised he had been standing speechless for a while, and tried to gather his words.
"You, you erm look, rather er nice." He said, as he tried to turn back to his cooking, which had started to burn.
"Considering I'm a human?" Rose asked jokingly as she poured herself a cup of coffee
"Considering anything."
Rose looked up at The Doctor, and their eyes met briefly, as she hung her head. "Shut up" she mumbled with a smile, as she went back to her coffee. The Doctor came up behind her and clutched her waist "I'm being serious Rose, your beautiful." She blushed and he gave her a light kiss on the cheek, content to just stand there forever, before he smelt a slight hint of burning in the air. "Oh crap the pancakes!" he shouted before running to the stove.
Rose laughed and sat down at the kitchen table as The Doctor managed to salvage the breakfast. He served it onto plates and brought it to Rose, and sat down at the table opposite her. "Breakfast is served" he said with a wink
"Bit burnt" she joked, with a gleam in her eye
"Well blame yourself for being so distracting."
"Oh shut up timelord"
"Oh shut up earth girl,"
And then they both just sat there, munching on bacon pancakes, smiling at each other like idiots.
Let me know what you think, through reviews ect ect, I'm quite happy with this chapter- but any suggestions, I'm open.