Chapter Text
“She just needs a rest,” the Doctor explained. “Remember how queasy she felt when she landed on Krop Tor? Well, that and her falling down into the pit have done a bit of a number on her. We’ll stay with your mother for a bit whilst she recuperates.”
Rose’s eyebrows furrowed in concern and her hand reached out, stroking the console involuntarily. “But she’ll be all right, yeah? No lasting damage or anything?”
The Doctor smiled at his friend reassuringly. “She’ll be fine, Rose. Don’t worry.”
Given that the TARDIS needed to power down for a few days, the Doctor decided to stay in the flat with Rose. He didn’t require as much sleep as humans, so he assured Jackie that he’d be fine to have the odd kip on the sofa if he needed it.
They’d landed near dinnertime, so the three of them settled in front of the telly after ordering some takeaway pizza.
“Shareen phoned the other day,” Jackie said, suddenly remembering. “Asked if I could tell you that she wanted you to visit her next time you were around.”
Rose frowned. “Is she all right? Why didn’t she just ring my mobile? We could’ve visited her straight away.”
“Dunno,” shrugged Jackie. “She sounded fine. Maybe she couldn’t get through to you or something. Anyway, she said she had some things to tell you, so you ought to pop ‘round hers after tea.”
“Yeah, good idea,” Rose murmured, still frowning. Then she shook her head to clear her thoughts and shifted a couple of inches closer to the Doctor on the sofa. “Do you want to come with?”
The Doctor glanced away from the telly to look at her in surprise. “Why?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “Just thought you might want to come. You know, seeing as otherwise you’ll be stuck here with Mum on your own,” she said, lowering her voice.
“Heard that,” chuckled Jackie good-naturedly, watching the Doctor shudder. She stood up. “I’m gonna make a cuppa, you two want one?”
“Yeah, ta Mum,” Rose answered, smiling, and the Doctor agreed.
Rose turned back to the Doctor, “So, you gonna - ”
“Yes,” he answered quickly. “Definitely. Last time I was left alone with your mother, things were…alarming.”
“In what way?” Rose laughed.
The Doctor tugged on his ear awkwardly. “Well, let’s just say she had a few questions about, er, the things we get up to. Or rather, don’t get up to. Things that she thought we – yeah. Anyway.”
Rose groaned, realising what he meant. “She never gives up, does she? No matter how many times I tell her we aren’t like that.” She heaved a sigh. “Sorry about that.”
He swallowed hard and returned his gaze to the television programme that was on. “It’s all right.”
She nudged his arm with her elbow. “You okay?”
“Yeah, fine, why wouldn’t I be?”
Rose shrugged it off and shifted even closer, nudging at his arm again to get him to lift it. He did, allowing her to snuggle in, and wrapped his arm across her shoulders. “Can’t wait for the pizza to arrive, I’m starving.”
“Me too.”
“You ordered the usual, yeah? We’re gonna go half and half again, right? ‘Cos you know I like some variety.”
The Doctor chuckled and rested his cheek against the side of her head. “Yep, got the same as always. They said it’d be thirty minutes.”
When Jackie returned to the room with their tea, she smiled fondly at them. “Don’t you two look cosy,” she grinned, placing their mugs on the coffee table and whacking the Doctor’s shins with a magazine to get him to shift his ankles off of it. They ignored her remark, eyes trained on the telly, but he dutifully moved his feet to the floor. Jackie wandered over to the cupboard and dug out a blanket, then threw it at them. “There you go, get all snug as a bug in a rug,” she grinned again.
The Doctor rolled his eyes, but seeing as Rose did seem a bit chilly, he draped it over their laps.
“So what exciting places have you two been to lately, anyway?” Jackie asked, as she settled back in her armchair and took a sip of tea.
They shared a quick glance, one wherein they were able to communicate quite clearly to one another that they wouldn’t be mentioning their most recent adventure on an impossible planet. The fears and losses and their brief but almost permanent separation were all too fresh in their minds, and they didn’t need to worry Jackie about it anyway.
“Oh, here and there,” the Doctor said breezily. “Took Rose to the New Emporium of Scandivabaar the other day. You’d like it there, Jackie; ten thousand shops all on one of the handy-dandy moons of Tshikov.”
Jackie laughed, “It’s funny, I never think of you going to places like that. In my head it’s all monsters and running about – but I suppose you were right, that time you said – do you remember, Doctor? You said ‘trouble’s just the bits in between.’ I never really believed you, to be honest.”
Rose felt the Doctor tense up slightly, no doubt wishing the trouble they’d just experienced hadn’t occurred. “We go all sorts of places, Mum. Last week, right, we were on this planet called – what was it? Daia? Doia?”
“Diaoa,” he murmured, with a small smile.
“That’s it! Yeah, so we were there, and there’s this small mountain they’ve got there that if you climb right to the top, which we did – well, we cheated a bit and took the TARDIS, but you know what I mean – well, from the top you can look out across the entire continent, and it’s completely silent. Like, you can be watching all those people – lots of different species – all hanging out and going about their lives living in harmony with one another down below, but you can’t hear a thing up there, at the peak! It’s so peaceful. And there was this gorgeous lavender sunset – oh, it was lovely, Mum; I could’ve painted it, it was so inspiring.”
Jackie pressed her lips together as if to hold in a laugh.
“What?” Rose asked, frowning at what she deemed to be an inappropriate reaction to what she’d said.
“Nothing, nothing,” Jackie smiled. She looked at the Doctor, made sure to meet his eye as she continued, “Just…sounds like a date, that’s all.”
To Jackie’s delight, the Doctor glared at her as both his and Rose’s cheeks went pink.
Rose huffed and, not looking at the Doctor, she replied, “Well straight after that we went and put down a rebellion in Barcelona – the planet Barcelona – and got arrested, so you can put any thoughts of dates out of your head, Mum.”
Jackie sipped at her tea casually and simply answered, “To be honest, sweetheart, that sounds like the sort of date you two would love.”
Rose practically growled in response, feeling very embarrassed that Jackie would say these things at all let alone in front of the Doctor. Thankfully the doorbell rang so she leapt up to get the pizza, grabbing her purse from the hall table as she went.
The Doctor watched her go, and when he heard her open the front door and make small talk with the delivery man, he leant forwards and whispered to Jackie, firmly but not unkindly, “Rose has had a tough time of it the past twenty-four hours. I don’t think she’s really in the mood for your teasing, Jackie; do you mind dialling it down a tad?”
Jackie raised her hand in surrender. “Fine, fine – but how do you mean, a tough time? What happened?” She narrowed her eyes. “Did you do something?”
“Me? No. Well, yes. It’s always my fault, really, isn’t it? But it wasn’t – we haven’t had a fight or anything, if that’s what you mean.”
“Well I can see that, the way you two have been canoodling on my sofa all night,” Jackie pointed out.
“Canoodling? Canoodling! Such a strange and inaccurate word, Jackie Tyler,” the Doctor sniffed, leaning back.
“What are you guys talking about?” Rose said, sounding confused as she re-entered the room, carrying three pizza boxes.
“Nothing!” squeaked the Doctor.
Jackie just shook her head, smiling mysteriously. “Oi, give it to us then, I’m hungry,” she said, holding out her hand for her pizza.
::
Later, when Rose and the Doctor were walking to Shareen’s, they spoke a little about what had happened on Krop Tor.
“I know you probably don’t want to talk about it,” Rose said carefully, as they left the flat. “But…we didn’t really get a chance to – to recover, I guess, before coming here. I mean, I couldn’t sleep very well last night, and I know you didn’t get much more than a nap either. And then we just…came to see Mum, and I’m not – I dunno. It’s all still whirling around in my head and…” she trailed off, and linked arms with the Doctor, who was staring straight ahead and, Rose could tell, holding his breath.
He finally exhaled, and replied quietly, “I don’t know what to say, to be honest. It was…”
“Yeah.”
“But now we’re, well, we’re back together and we’re – safe. And it lied, Rose, it did.”
“You really think that?” she said shakily.
“Yes. I will not let – it won’t happen. It just won’t.”
Rose nodded and swallowed thickly. “Okay.”
The Doctor unlinked their arms so that he could grab her hand. Giving it a squeeze, he said, “You said just now that you couldn’t sleep last night. I knew it, I knew you were pretending.”
She shrugged a shoulder and smiled faintly. “Sorry. Didn’t want to worry you. Appreciated the cuddling, though.”
After saying goodbye to Ida and the other crew-members, the Doctor had diverted the TARDIS to the vortex and gone to bed with Rose. It wasn’t the first time he had stayed with her through the night – he tended to do that, now and then, after a particularly harrowing adventure. He usually just lay atop the duvet and let her snuggle against him until she fell asleep, then read a book or tinkered or something until she woke up. Last night, though – last night had been different. He changed into his pyjamas, just as she did, and slipped in beside her, curling around her from behind immediately, needing the comforting warmth of her presence as much as she needed his.
“Yes, well,” he murmured, in the here and now. “We both needed that, I reckon.”
Rose’s smile widened. “Yeah.” She was surprised, actually, that he’d so readily come to her room like that, without her even having to ask. She had thought, with him nearly losing his ship forever, that he’d want to spend some time under the TARDIS console. But no.
He cleared his throat, then. “And, er, about what happened in the morning - ”
“It’s okay, Doctor, I already said that it’s fine. It happens, I get it, it’s fine.”
“No, but I…”
“I know it didn’t mean anything,” Rose said quickly, “You don’t have to worry that I’m gonna misinterpret it, or something. Happens to loads of blokes.”
“It…what?”
“Well, I mean, not that I’ve – that much experience – but everyone knows that blokes, you know, have that, in the morning, when they wake up – even if they haven’t been dreaming, or whatever - and it’s all right.”
The Doctor chuckled uneasily, feeling his cheeks heat up. He didn’t know why he’d brought it up again; he felt now that he should’ve just left it how it was, how they’d left it earlier, when they’d awoken from what little sleep they had managed to get and she’d assured him not to worry about the erection pressed against her bum. “I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t, er. Offended or anything.”
Rose snorted. “Offended? Why would I be offended, of all things?”
“Well, all right, I just didn’t know if you thought that maybe – that the reason I’d – well, it wasn’t. I didn’t sleep in your bed with the intention of - ”
“I know,” Rose laughed, bumping his shoulder with hers. “I know you wouldn’t do something like that.”
“Okay. Just so – just so we’re clear.”
She swung their hands between them, smiling up at him reassuringly. “Yes. I mean, you don’t even…”
“Don’t even what?”
Her face flushed. “Well, you don’t, do you? ‘Hardly used,’ and all that. Right?”
The Doctor released her hand and scratched at his neck, following Rose up the stairs in Shareen’s building. “Yeah.”
When they reached Shareen’s floor, Rose took his hand back in hers and they wandered along the balcony to the flat. “I used to wonder, you know, if it even…worked like that, for Time Lords.” She waggled her eyebrows.
“What?” he squeaked.
Rose smothered a laugh. “For all I knew there could be tentacles that, like, disengage from your body and - ”
He stopped walking and put his free hand over her mouth. She giggled against his palm, and his eyes twinkled at her. “Don’t even finish that sentence,” he said, lips twitching. “I don’t want to know what scenarios you cooked up in that dark, dark mind of yours.”
Rose grabbed his hand and pulled it away from her mouth. “I’m just kidding, Doctor. Nothing dark about the scenarios I’ve thought up.”
“No?”
“Nope.” She held his gaze. Stroked her thumb across the back of his hand. Took a tiny step forward.
He swallowed. “So - ”
“Thought I heard your voice, Rose!” called Shareen, as she opened her front door.
They dropped each other’s hand and jumped in surprise. “Oh,” Rose smiled. “Hi Shareen! We were just gonna knock. How are you?”
“Oh, I’m fine, hun, how are you?” she said, embracing Rose in a big hug. The Doctor stood there, eyes darting around, awkwardly running a hand through his hair and trying to get his thoughts on the right track.
“I’m pretty good,” Rose beamed.
“Come in, then,” Shareen beamed back, then tugged on the Doctor’s arm to get his attention, “And you, mister. Fancy a drink?”
He smiled at her and nodded, “Sure, yes, thanks.”
They congregated in Shareen’s living room, and she went to fetch some beers from the fridge. The Doctor looked at Rose, but she wouldn’t meet his eye. They sat down on opposing ends of Shareen’s sofa.
“Here you go,” said Shareen, handing a bottle each to them. “Now, Rose, I s’pose it’s best I come right out and say what I’ve got to say to you.”
“How do you mean?” Rose asked, brow furrowing. She knew it. She knew there was something wrong. “What’s happened?”
Shareen let out a long breath as she sank into the armchair opposite Rose. “Jimmy’s back in town.”
Rose froze, the bottle of beer halfway to her lips. She set it down on the coffee table and fiddled with the sleeve of her jacket. “Right. Okay. Since when?”
The Doctor observed Rose closely, taking in her agitated state. He knew about Jimmy Stone taking off and leaving her for someone else - about how he’d taken some of her savings, too. What he didn’t know was how Rose felt about the man these days. Jimmy had been gone from her life for a few years, but the Doctor wasn’t sure whether Rose hated him or still – well.
“Couple of weeks. Been in and out of prison, apparently, all over the place.”
“What for?”
“Oh, the usual. Assault, drugs. Stuff like that. Got himself back on track now…according to Kev, he’s a salesman, or something. Door-to-door thing, ya know. Anyway, I just thought you ought to know that he was back. In case he…”
Rose stiffened. “In case he what?”
Shareen shifted awkwardly.
“What is it, Shareen?” the Doctor prompted.
Shareen sighed. “Thing is, I’ve heard through the grapevine that he’s been asking around about you.”
“Oh. Why? Four years ago, he left me. What’s he want to get in touch with me now, for?”
“Maybe he wants to reimburse you,” the Doctor offered. “After leaving you to take the fall for him with that debt of his.”
Rose snorted a laugh, as did Shareen. “Yeah, doubt it, Doctor. Jimmy ain’t really the sort of bloke to apologise for something like that, let alone pay someone back.”
“But if he’s turned himself around and all that - ”
“Nah, I don’t think so, Doctor.”
“It’s more likely that he wants to, er, catch up, Rose,” mumbled Shareen.
“Just what’s he been saying? Come on, Shareen, tell me.”
Running her fingers through her dark hair, Shareen sighed again and admitted, “He heard through Keisha’s old bloke Damian that you’ve been away travelling. And that you’d, you know, found someone else,” she added, nodding towards the Doctor.
“Well, four years later what did he expect me to have done? Sat around waiting for him to come back like a loser?”
“I dunno, but you know what he’s like. Remember that time we were at that club and that fella chatted you up? And Jimmy came bounding over ready to strike - ”
“He did what?” demanded the Doctor. “Rose, he didn’t - ”
“No, listen, it’s all right, he never hurt me,” Rose assured him, seeing the look on his face. “He could just get a little jealous, that’s all.”
“A little?” Shareen scoffed. “He threatened to tear that bloke’s bollocks off!”
“Nothing happened, though, we just left and he didn’t touch him. Er, that time, anyway.”
“Still, some of his mates have been encouraging him to see you, so you better keep an eye out.”
“What’d they do that for?” Rose groaned, and picked up her beer, taking a few gulps. She wiped her chin, set the bottle down, and flung her head back against the sofa. “He was always worse when he was around that lot. Bunch of pricks, the lot of ‘em.”
“Apparently Gazza told him he’d seen you down at Bill’s chip shop a couple of months back. Said that you looked all grown-up and happy and – er, well, he said you two looked cosy,” Shareen said next, glancing between Rose and the Doctor.
“Funny, we’re being told that a lot lately,” the Doctor muttered, rubbing at his eye tiredly.
“Great,” Rose mumbled.
“Jimmy apparently didn’t take too well that you’d found some older guy to fool around with.”
The Doctor interjected, “Rose and I do not ‘fool around.’”
Shareen rolled her eyes and smirked, “Fine, whatever you want to call it. I was just trying to keep it kid-friendly for your sensitive ears. I saw how you blushed, Doctor, when Bev started making all those comments at New Years’.”
“What comments?” Rose asked curiously.
“Nothing, really,” he hurried to reply, before Shareen could get a word in. “Let’s just say she used some colourful language to insinuate what you and I – er, don’t do.”
“Don’t do?” retorted Shareen, laughing hard. “Hahaha, good one.”
Rose groaned again and put her head in her hands. “Why does everyone think we’re fucking?” she complained.
Shareen stopped laughing. “Wait, what? You’re saying you’re not?” Her eyes darted between them both, taking in the Doctor’s embarrassed refusal to meet her gaze and Rose’s pink cheeks. “What?” They remained silent. “No, but – what? I thought you two were – what?”
Rose coughed awkwardly. “Yeah, well, you thought wrong. Just leave it, yeah?”
“But - ”
“Shareen,” Rose hissed, completely mortified.
Shareen nodded dazedly. “Right. Okay. Sorry.” She cleared her throat to divert the conversation. “So! Anyway! What have you been up to, recently?”