Rose, and for his credit, the Doctor both stayed with Jackie right up until the moment she had to be taken back to the 'cath lab' where they would examine and then repair the damage they found there. Two hour minimum for Jackie to be back, and as her mother had suggested, Rose planned on talking to the Doctor about their intimacy barrier. The waiting room, however, was crowded, so when the Doctor wandered off in search of the mess hall for a snack, Rose made her way out to the little prayer garden the Hospital had outside the hospital chapel for patients and families.

There were several flowering plants, which were just starting to turn green again, coming out of the winter season, and the air was pleasantly warm for an early spring day, so Rose found a bench in the sunshine and simply sat, her eyes closed and wind gently blowing her hair. The smell of new growth carried on the breeze and Rose breathed deeply, realizing just how much she'd missed the feel of her home planet. She felt the Doctor's presence beside her on the bench, the sound of various plastic snack food bags crinkling in his arms making her smile.

"Took me forever to find you." He whined, prompting her to open her left eye and look over at him, where she saw that he had a double armload of crisps, biscuits, candies and roasted nuts. She lost her sunshine inspired zen at the sight of him, and burst out laughing.

"Couldn't pick?" She laughed.

"Well, no." He grinned. "I figure whatever we don't eat here, we can take back to Jackie's, or take home for it to join the bowl of random things in the galley. Either one."

'Take it home.' He'd said about the TARDIS. Their home. It made Rose grin.

"You're a mess." She teased, taking a package of salt and vinegar crisps from him and busting the package open by clapping it between her hands.

"That is a dangerous game!" He teased back. "The other end could've just as easily popped and dumped those all over the walkway."

"You'd go get me more, don't lie." She replied with a wrinkle of her nose, before popping one in her mouth.

"So what were you doing out here?" He ask, sitting the rest of his snack stockpile on the empty space on the bench next to him. "You looked almost meditative. Just about left you alone, looked too peaceful to disturb."

Rose's eyes returned to the garden before them, and for a moment, she closed her eyes again, as the breeze drifted back through. She took a deep breath, but snorted when she heard a package open next to her, and she looked over to see him digging dried banana chips out of the bag.

"Banana chips?" She laughed. "Really?"

"What?" He ask around a mouthful of banana chip. He knew why she'd been amused, but seeing her smile made him smile in return. "Bananas are-"

"Good, I know." She leaned into his shoulder, and they both laughed.

"Really, love. What brought you out here?" He ask, digging back down into the narrow opening of his snack bag.

"Well, for one thing... 'S quiet out here." She said, nodding to the garden that was empty except for them and an elderly couple who were walking the foot path across the garden. "Just... 'S loud inside. Made me anxious."

"Fair enough I suppose." He agreed.

"I also forgot what it felt like to just... Sit in the sun I was born under." She sighed, then felt the slight tense in her partner's arm and immediately regretted her statement. "Oh. Oh God, Doctor, I'm so-" Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Don't be sorry." The Doctor turned and gave a slightly banana scented kiss to her forehead. "After all, the sun I was born under is still there. The planet..." He gave a mock grimace, then went immediately back into a smile. "I'm adjusted. Besides," He leaned into her in a mirror of the way she'd just done to him, "I'm not all alone anymore, am I?"

"I just-" Rose felt her emotions all still sitting right behind her eyes, "I can't believe I said that."

"Why?" He ask, brow furrowed. "This is your planet. It's okay to miss your planet. In fact- while you're pregnant, and while our baby is little- we could just... travel the earth?"

"Huh?" Rose gasped. "What? Why?"

"This planet is gorgeous. Like... Properly. I've come here so many times over the years for a reason. I very fond of this little blue marble. I, if you remember my love, am the President of this little blue marble. I think we should travel it. The three of us." He gave her a grin and wiggled his eyebrows. "Come on... You know you've never even thought about it. There are wonders on this very planet that would put some of the things we've seen to such a shame..."

"I guess we could..." Rose slowed down chewing the bite in her mouth, watching him carefully. "You're being weird."

"No." He straightened up in his seat and craned his neck. "I just think a lighter bit of exploring is a good idea. We're a third of the way into the pregnancy, Rose. You're going to get more tired as we go. There are so many things we could do and see right here... And just think- for many of them, you'd be showing me a foreign planet."

"You're buttering me up. Why are you doing this?" She said, crisps now crumpled in the cup holder attached to the arm of her bench.

"Rose..."

"No you tell me. You said after the whole 'hey I knew you were pregnant for months before you' thing that you's stop keeping secrets." Rose frowned.

"I scanned Jackie, and I know, I see on your face, I should've waited and seen what they're doing here... But Rose, My equipment sees more than medicine of this decade of earth can, and humanity won't catch up for at least another forty years. If it was bad, I thought we could maybe... Why are you crying?" The Doctor paused, mid-ramble, because Rose had began to cry, her face not quite readable.

"You were going to take my mum into the future if they can't fix her here?" She squeaked.

"Of course I was." The Doctor replied softly. He reached over and took her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. "I kinda thought we were doing the whole... start a family... thing? Oh heavens Rose, please don't cry harder." He pleaded.

"I can't help it." She croaked, smiling as she cried. "I just-" She hiccuped a couple times, trying to catch her breath, "I'm so happy."

"Happy. Okay, this is happy." He nodded, still looking confused.

"I'm pregnant, you knob!" She swatted at him, blinking upward to try and stop crying. "Its your fault I'm all weepy like this!"

"You tell him, honey!" The older woman laughed, as she and her husband made their way slowly by, having finally made it nearly all the way around the foot path. The older woman stopped, and tugged a bit on her husband's arm, pausing before the Doctor and Rose. "How far along are you?"

"Four months." The Doctor answered before Rose could, quickly calculating fetus size as compared to a human pregnancy.

"Oh mercy, so long to go!" She smiled, a bright grin that was elevated by the way it lit up her eyes. "First one?"

"Yes, ma'am." Rose smiled.

"First one is the learning curve. Hang in there, son. By the third, you won't even bat an eye." The older man gave them a wink and a nod. The Doctor simply smiled, and Rose had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing at the poor gentlemen calling her 900 year old boyfriend 'son'.

"Congratulations, you two." The older woman waved, and she and her husband continued on their way. Rose and the Doctor watched until they were out of ear-shot, looked at each other, and then burst into a hysterical fit of laughter.

"Oh, oh..." The Doctor chuckled, trying to catch his breath, "I'm so so old."

"Yeah..." Rose wrinkled her nose at him again. "You really kind of are."

"Wow. You're not supposed to agree!" He teased. "But uh- really. We were talking about your mum."

"We were." She agreed. "You didn't actually tell me what you saw."

"I saw... a significant blockage. But I really think they'll be able to fix it here." He admitted. "If I didn't, I wouldn't have even let her in the cab this morning. We'd have taken her straight away to a better hospital."

Rose sat forward and placed a lingering kiss on his lips, before pulling back and giving him a signature tongue-biting-grin.

"You like my muuuuum" She hummed in a sing-song voice.

"Mmm." He snorted. "I love her daughter. There's a fine line there, I do a high wire act on it."

"You dooooo." She sung again, tickling at his ribs, and he cracked a grin.

"I do... Enough." He admitted, kissing her cheek. "I think she might need quite a bit of care, going forward. Just ya know... For a bit. Then by the time she's back on her feet... Well, frankly, Rose, I don't think you'll be able to see yours."

"Oh, I'll miss my toes!" She joked, holding her sandaled feet up and wiggling her toes.

"So, Rose Tyler... Will you see the world with me?" He held his hand back out to her. She grinned at took his hand.

"I'd love to." She sighed happily.

The Doctor turned away briefly, took a bottle of water from his pile and handed it to Rose, then picked his bag of banana chips back up.

"So, what was the other thing you said you wanted to talk about?" He ask, tossing a banana chip ridiculously high in the air, and still managing to catch it as it fell back down.

"Oh." Rose's cheeks turned pink. "Right. The other thing."

"If you're planning on breaking up with me, I do have to tell you, it will make our adventures a bit awkward..." He tried to joke. Rose gave him a half smile, tilting her head.

"Well, thing is..." She bit at her thumbnail, thinking, "I uh."

"Are you okay?" He ask, his face serious in a flash, banana chips shoved into his pocket.

"I'm... I'm uh..." She mumbled the last bit, and the Doctor quirked an eyebrow and moved a bit closer.

"Sorry, I didn't... Rose my ears are like half the size now, speak up." He once again tried to joke with her, and she did give him brief, breathy laugh for his self-deprecating joke, but she tilted her head the other way and sighed heavily before reaching over and grabbing the lapel of his brown suit jacket.

"I am so sexually frustrated I might strangle you." She growled low into his ear through gritted teeth, then hid her face in his shoulder. The Doctor could feel the embarrassment she was feeling rolling off of her from where her hand was touching his on the bench.

"Oh... OH..." The Doctor replied. He stiffened for a moment, then adjusted slightly so he could pull Rose, still hiding her face, into his arms, her nose now firmly planted in the middle of his chest. He tried to gently coax her up, but she kept herself buried. "Rose, look at me please."

"Mm-mm." She refused, shaking her head.

"Rose, please." He sighed, kissing the top of her head.

"Nope. I can hear you." She replied, muffled by his shirts.

"Okay." He sighed, stroking her hair. "Well, the thing with regeneration is..." He paused, picked up a strand of her hair, twirled it for a second, then dropped it back down. "I'm the same man inside, yeah?"

"I know." She nodded against him.

"Outside... All new equipment." He replied gently. "So, uh..."

"So what?" She looked up, finally, her face redder than the Doctor had ever seen- including the first time she'd gotten sunburned from a resort planet.

"I don't... I don't want to disappoint you." He admitted, his voice cracking halfway through. "Before- you know, we sorta... We had a rhythm. We... We got each other. We made love. We made a baby."

"I was there..." Rose nodded, trying to get him to continue to speak.

"Rose. I... There's a learning curve there. What if... What if you don't like..." He gestured to himself, from the chin down.

Rose looked at him, smiled, and kissed the tip of his nose.

"Do you still know how to do that..." She gestured with her hand in front of her mouth, her face growing red again, "Thing. With your tongue?"

"Oh absolutely." He laughed and gave her a wink.

"Then I think we can work the rest of it out." She giggled and he pulled her close, nuzzling her with his nose before pulling her in for a quick kiss. She sighed into him as his free hand slid across her little baby bump.

"I'm sorry." He said gently. "I should've realized..."

"It's okay." She promised. "I'm sorry. I didn't think about that from your side either. I just... You're you, ya know? I didn't even think about that. I don't think about it. I miss the smell of the leather coat sometimes, but I still have you, so I think I'll live."

"You're the mess, now." He grinned. "We should probably go be in the waiting room when they come tell us how ol' Gran is, yeah?"

"I'm telling her you called her that." Rose stuck her tongue out at him, scooping up half of his snack pile and heading for the door back inside.

"Please don't!" He called after her, gathering up the rest of his bounty.

Is this mostly fluff?
Yes.
Is it a filler chapter?
Yes.
Do I hope you liked it anyway?
Also yes!
Thanks for reading-please leave a review!