John blustered through the forest with reckless abandon. No sense to avoid any obstacles. Barreling into branches that otherwise could be easily sidestepped. Almost as though welcoming them to claw his clothing and skin.

Rose herself struggled to keep up once he entered the woods. Years of running under her belt, moot in a dress. One too many rips in her clothing later, she debating why chasing him was a good idea. After all, he'd have to return to the school eventually, where else would he go?

But as they stumble into a wide open field, and he rounds on her, Rose decides it might be a little late to turn back now.

"What am I to do now!?" John shouted.

Rose lifted a hand to her ear and glared. "Speaking rationally is a good start."

"Have I ever produced an original thought?" John asked, animosity unflinching. "All I've believed is written in stone. Information hand-fed straight from the secondary source." He threw his arms up. "I'm one big book!"

"Or the internet..."

"Stop that," John sneered.

"What?" Rose raised a brow.

"Using such slang." The word itself did not irk him, but the fact that he understood it.

Rose groaned. "That's not important. Go on, get this out of your system." Rose combed her fingers through her hair, searching for a resolution for his sudden spike in emotion. "You're one big book, yeah, but you've got character, Mister Smith. So what if you can recite my secondary school textbooks. It's who you are that's important."

"And who is that exactly?" He prompted. Eyebrows jumping as she hesitated. "Those novels I'm reciting are who I am. I am tethered to a machines choice. A box determined that I come here now, and even spout these words! I cannot act without a formula. I carry no substance. No importance of a normal human being. I am nothing, Rose. Nothing." John's adam's apple bobbed as he stared Rose down. Admitting such raw thoughts to her of all people. The one who can make or break him left him feeling defenceless. Bare to her most whimsical reaction. And John was in no state to take even the possibility of her silence.

"Never say that," Rose growled, stepping forth, leaving mere inches between them. It's not him, but his face and voice, and the importance of his emotional state washed over, and overwhelmed her all at once. To have put that thought into his head left a power in Rose's fingertips she desperately wanted to scrub off. "You're life holds importance you can't even begin to imagine!"

Suddenly beyond her cloak and dagger presence, John heard the shadow of her words. "For him?"

Two words doused her fire with a look of shock. Realisation, he imagined.

John, once near placation from her rebellion, burned deeper than before. "I am not a person, but a substitute." Beneath his rage, a hint of pleading. "How different am I from him? Do we not share the same face?"

At his pause her voice cracked, "y-your face hasn't changed, but you're not..." Rose floundered her hand in circular motions as if to work thoughts forward. "There are moments you act like him, but... you're not..." She struggled, her own understanding thrown into disarray. At his revelations she found stereotypes of him in her own mind. To right her thoughts now would be too late. Had she ever separated the two? Or coped them into one; treated John Smith as a phase in the Doctor's life. Rose bit her tongue, the guilt eating her heels to flee— give her some time. Come to terms with the idea of him, to help him come to terms himself.

Yet, it seems, time will forever plague the two with inconvenience.

"Am I unique?" He shouted. "Do I differ from him that I am lesser of what he was, or am I something else entirely?" His fists clenched. "Because I remember! I remember life. Waking restless to the day ahead. For the adventures we held. Past roads. To oceans. Despite my whims you've always been beside me, " he wavered. Her chagrin proof of their dissociation that tore John's heart deeper than his being ever could. "Explain. Who am I!? Who. Are. You!?"

That question again. Rose deflated. Watching him pace away, and back. Her eyes brimming with sympathy at a man falling apart.

"Am I to not have the life I've pined for?" His desperate roar constrained by a lump in his throat. "All I've..." His chest heaved. "All I've yearned for-" worn from an attempt to verbally explain, he chose a more direct route...

...and kissed her.

A/N

I'll save you beautiful readers any excuses and say I'm sorry. Summer creates the laziest bum out of me. With that said I can make no promises to be timely. The Fall semester picks up in two weeks. Also, I've not written anything concrete during my hiatus. So, please feel free to inform me if any following chapters feel off. I tried (and failed) to complete a jump start fic, so I could reenter my already existing ones with ease. But alas, this one beckons.

Now! A huge THANK YOU to ElspethMcGillicuddy whose endeavors to create her fics, has inspired me to pick up my own. Also her Doctor/Rose fix-it called Once While Calibrating a Trans-Temporal Psychic Beacon Spatio-Locator will not disappoint, give it a read!

MirrorFlower and DarkWind: Thank you very much for the wish of luck! It helped, just so you know. I passed! :)

Kl: Well, I hope you're still reading now! And, yeah, I got a fluff story out of the jump start fic. I think. I'm iffy on posting it though. I know it's not a gem. But I've gotten too far to turn back now! It's going to have the Doctor pitted against Rose as they try to better the other in love, by picking up strangers, and the first to get the stranger to fall in love with them wins. No angst, just fun mishaps.

Myste-maus: Thank you! You're lovely for that! Have you seen the two episodes yet? Either way, I aim to make the remainder of this fic deserving of your praise. ^_^

Guest: Hopefully you don't mind me calling you Adric. Adric, if you couldn't wait on December 14, 2014, I am deeply sorry that the update has taken almost a year to reach you, if it even has. Really. Terrible sorry.

AwkwardMoment: What a splendid anon name. My apologies that you also felt impatience when the wait had been this great. Still, thank you so very much for your kind words!