Since when did things change?

She knew John noticed.

His lingering touches. Watchful gaze. Small chances he took.

Thankfully he had the decency to not call her out on the change. Except, he didn't have the decency not to act on it. Those small things he did; she actively avoided.

Accepting him as the Doctor slowly unlocked her perception of him. And emotions. Emotions she failed to noticed until he did that... that thing...

Rose snapped from a daze, focusing on words she wasn't reading. Thankfully John disappeared into the depths of the TARDIS. He explores comfortably now. More inquisitive than apprehensive. Always learning. Learning and applying. A method she could benefit from.

Drawing on past experience John definitely harbors an interest. She knew that. Just never acknowledged it. Never thought she'd entertain the opportunity.

Because it feels like cheating!

Maybe not on the Doctor, but their relationship.

Allowing John the freedom to cross a boundary the Doctor stood adamantly at the border of.

A border that teeters on the edge of a cliff.

And a cliff that, apparently, dug steeper with each new Doctor.

Going back, her first Doctor allowed friendly touches. The occasional heart to heart. Her second; tactile to the bitter core. His words dancing around the truth of what they are. Even blurting pieces of his past, giving her a glimpse of who he once was. Of Gallifrey, his family, his past, him.

And then there's John who's basted, and served himself to her on a silver platter.

Rose laughed into her book imagining it.

But she can't allow it!

Her previous Doctor will return. Unlike the other. It'd be like returning to her first Doctor after all that's happened between her and her second. It's steps they haven't taken together, and he wouldn't appreciate it... or... would he? In a whole, they're all the same man. So...

Rose groaned, a headache knotting between her brows.

That's when the TARDIS sent distress in waves, crashing down, goading Rose to the corridor.

Miffed to have her already addled thoughts interrupted she dropped her book. "Alright!"

Rose made her way with the TARDIS leading, a surprisingly long walk, that ended with a yelp through the crack of an open double door.

She peeked inside. Empty. Plain and clinically white. Except for the large round circles that patterned the walls.

"Rose!" John shouted from above. Like a gangly spider he spread himself against the ceiling, twisting to see her. He squeezed his eyes shut when she grinned, nearly curling into himself. "Please leave..."

Rose sputtered into a laugh. He flailed to right himself.

How the tables have turned.

His assurance in flirting any chance he got, and now this.

She nodded at him, her hair swaying without gravity. "Find the Zero Room alright?"

"I have discovered-" he drifted slowly from the ceiling, alarmed when something solid went out of reach. "N- Neuton could benefit from a fourth law." He attempted something of a dog paddle to keep from flipping upright, but settled on crossing his arms. Pouting as the rotation continued beyond his control.

"Or you could think on his first." She kicked off toward him, bumping into his back, sending them both to the ceiling. Then once she could hook his arm, she catapulted from the ceiling, gliding them back to the door.

Rose used the door handle as leverage to land gracefully. John swung his limbs wide, almost falling into the corridor. He regained composure quick enough.

"For all the items littered onboard this vessel, the lack thereof led me to investigate." He scratched the side of his nose. "You could surmise the rest..."

"I could..." Rose airily responded. She crinkled her nose instead, asking, "peckish?"

In the galley Rose gathered the dry food, not daring to check the refrigerator. Knowing the Doctor's tendency to pick up alien delicacies, something inside could have thawed, and start crawling out.

"Cereal, biscuits, dried fruit, protein bars, crisps." She picked the crisps, plopping into the chair while munching them. "Mmm."

"Airtight bags?" John placed his palm flat against the plastic containing dried fruit. "Interesting."

"Try it," she offered some to him. He declined. Entering an alien is not the same as allowing something alien to enter him.

John scoured the cupboards. Finding in the dark back of one a fruit bowl. Full of pears. Aha! This is where they disappear to. He chose the healthiest, gathering it onto a plate, and finding a knife. John set to carve up a snack.

At the sound of it slicing in half Rose snapped to attention. First thinking of what can produce such a noise, and then remembering the pears.

His back to her, covering her view, she blurted, "what are you doing?"

He pinched a slice while turning to lean against the counter. "Scrumptious."

Rose scrambled for him. "Stop!" Instinctively he held it high, the picture of shock as she used his chest for leverage to reach it. A what is she doing!? mantra screaming circles in his head.

Catching glance of his paralyzed state, she slowly peeled off. Starling herself as their faces had been mere centimeters apart. Then smoothing his suit, she pointed at the pear slice. "Don't eat that."

An eyebrow climbed to his forehead. "Why?"

Her shoulders fell. "It's important."

"That's another thing," he rolled his eyes up in thought. "Before, you stole every pear. Never said why. So...?" He arched his head forward, tongue to the roof of his mouth.

"The Doctor asked that I keep you from pears."

"A rule?" He brought it closer to his lips.

Rose leaned in. "Yes."

"Very well." John grabbed her hand, placing the slice in her palm, while rubbing his thumb to her wrist with the other. "Although I'd rather dine on fresh food."

Rose jerked away. Then played it off by gesturing to the doorway. "Th-there are a few choices."

Down the corridors they defaulted to magnets. Opposites in themselves. John's hand brushing hers. Rose retreating her hand to fiddle with her hair. Emotions muddled. It's like he knew she couldn't make up her mind, to accept him or not, and kept encouraging her to give them a chance.

She glanced at him. His twinkling eyes. And when they met his smile became a full on grin.

What to do?

They entered the Green Room. Grander than anything he's encountered, it shadowed the Doctor's love of nature as something the size of what could be a small planet. Trees reached for the sky— an artificial one. Caressed in sunlight that felt genuine, but also akin to holding your arm too close to a lamp. Kaleidoscopic stones decorated the gravel path below. He almost apologised for stepping on them. Then the grass, vibrant and proud, stood at a short uniform length.

Rose wandered off the path up to grab a step ladder. Setting it up, she climbed atop, then reached for a low hanging fruit.

Rose hopped off and offered it to him.

"Apple?" He examined it. "Not an extraterrestrial...anything?"

"Plain old apple."

John bit it. Instantly pleased, he took a bigger bite. Once finished he extracted a few to carry. Two in one arm, and another to eat now. "The one fruit I snack on daily, to the point of being a chore, yet never has it excited my tongue for more."

Rose, daydreaming, shook her head to ask. "I'm sorry. You eat an apple everyday?"

"Yes. Why?"

Rose bit her lips, shook her head, then pointed over her shoulder before excusing herself.

John took to admiring the forest. His heart soaring. A sensation that accompanied his exploration of every new room. Yet never diminishing in quality. For the TARDIS, in its infinite glory, never ceased to test his imagination.

Trees bearing bizarre fruit. Colors he should never think edible; red splashed with a web-like black, greys to whites. Forms both triangular, and amorphous. Impossible. Then those with familiar peaches littered in the branches. Vibrant, plumb, probably delicious if the apple was anything to go by. John's lips watered.

Then through the winding branches, past dotted leaves in the distance, John caught sight of déjà vu. A peek of silver that beckoned. He tentatively approached. A tree not bearing fruit, but leaves of silver. He picked one of the many scattered at his feet. It's texture not that of silver, but of a leaf. Veins a similar color, it could be painted, so he tore it. The inside confirmed. But still, silver chlorophyll?

So alien, and yet, John couldn't understand the whisper of sorrow in his chest. An ache that the tree, stolen by its roots, did not belong in this collection —downright storage— of trees.

A leaf clipped free. Fluttering down his line of thought as if to illustrate it understood.

John smiled, his reflection in the leaf of a face that wasn't his. A face carrying burdens beyond that of a simple school teacher. He heard Rose approach. And taking a deep breath he confessed, "sometimes I feel I've forgotten the most important thing..."

Rose debated this moment. There are something's John could do with never learning. And who the Doctor was before her isn't something she's entitled to tell. But not now. Adding mystery to pain, she knew, only hurt. Besides, if nothing else, a name. "It's a Cadonwood tree," she traced her fingers along the trunk.

"Yes," he nodded. "That sounds appropriate."

"It's from the Doctor's..." She paused, watching her finger move over the bumpy texture, only stopping as it dropped into a crevice. "Well, I suppose, your home planet." She half turned to him, locking eyes. How he accepted her words would define how she accepts him. From here on out. "You remember it, don't you John? Or else you wouldn't be under it."

Rose braced herself for the worst.

"Yes," John admitted on a breath. He cast his gaze aside. "Secondhand experience, I'm afraid, is the majority of what I am." He cut a glance at Rose. "The heart especially so."

"Then... if given the choice, does that mean you'd rather have stayed in the dark? Gone on without the Doctor?"

"If given the choice?" he laughed mirthlessly. "Before this all began, if I knew the inner demons it would invite; yes. To escape the turmoil of being a man I am not. A normal life. Love met on a morning street corner... I would ache for no more."

Rose swallowed the guilt bubbling in her throat as she nodded.

He covered her hand against the bark with his, pulling it down so their fingers intertwined. "But at this moment I can't imagine forfeiting my past. For my ties to him thread my ties to you. However challenging you've been. And this." He threw his arm out in a grandiose gesture. "Nestled between horror and wonder, I find myself in the latter daily." His cheeks warmed. With a wide smile he said, "For introducing me to this treasure trove I cannot thank you enough." He gushed. "It's brilliant!"

Rose stared at their joined hands. Shyly she met John's eye. "Don't thank me. Thank the TARDIS."

And she laughed as his head snapped up, shouting to the ceiling as he did. "Thank you!"

A/N

Story time. I passed out, woke up at 3AM, wasn't going to shower since it got late. But certain... woman things... compelled me. Enter the hall and there's two massive roaches. This forced my hand. I paced, thought on those conquering fear stories, and decided this was not one. Cause I'll deal with it, then still be just as terrified next time. I've got terrible aim with a shoe, so my weapon of choice was a reaching tool. Got my brother up to help. He provided mumbled wedges of moral support. Then told me to drown the suckers in the toilet. After a few tentative attempts I got one sucker by the back and dropped him in. Those suckers can apparently swim. Almost didn't flush in time. The next wasn't so hard. Then when I finally got to actually using the toilet, my mind went "hey, remember those stories about roaches surviving the pipes, crawling back up the drains for revenge?"

I'm not sleeping.

Here's a chapter.

MirrorFlower and DarkWind: Sweet! And as always, thank you for the review!

SkatingWithDragons: What!? Clara!? WHAAAT SUSAN! I hadn't entertained the possibility. Although, I have thought of The Rani, but she would hardly be so.. cute. Then a very real possibility of her being Romana entered my mind. My friend (new to Who) pondered it being Tentoo and Rose's daughter, I could only smirk. If only she knew how many times fans have conjured that theory up about Clara. Does this magical newspaper of yours mention anything else? No, wait, spoilers- oops, I MEAN thank you for reading! x'D

AkumakoRonso: I tried not doing plotty things, it just sorta happened. Like that invasive Kool Aid man on children commercials. I hope you enjoyed it, and thank you for reviewing!

StarsInTheSky: Aw, ya think? Thank you for leaving a review. I tried for flustered Rose a bit more here, only succeeded so-so probably. Also, DOCTAH WHOOO! I suppose by now it's a few episodes past, but I laughed when the Doctor rolled in on Darvos' chair "admit it, you've all had this exact nightmare." Ooh my, and the last one! When the Doctor left Clara saying he'd save her, I'd replied "yeah, Doctor, but who's gonna save you?" And he flippin did the the thing like the stiffs. How dare you Doctor. HOW DARE HE!

arynrds: Delicious? I knew my fic had an aroma of procrastination and regret. But what does it taste like? No, I'm sorry, ignore me xD Oh you're so kind! Thank you so much for that review! My ego is officially purring. As for you're questions, I'm gonna stamp a great fat MAYBE on them. Maybe they'll kiss again. Maybe she'll reciprocate it. Maaaybe they'll succeed. I mean, the genre does beg for certain plot staples.