I'll Be Home for Christmas (10/Rose)
Title: I'll Be Home for Christmas
Characters/Pairing: Doctor, Rose, Ten/Rose
Rating: PG, for fluff and angst together and at the same time. It's worth reading just to see how I do it.
Beta: None, mistakes are shamefully mine.
Spoilers: Nothing really, just a post-Doomsday AU.
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or the BBC, they own me.
Summary: I'll Be Home for Christmas by Frank Sinatra
Author's Note: So I wrote this for the sistersofguh Winter Romance-a-thon and finished it around the holidays, and then forgot about it... ("Doh!") So here it is, a bit late for the holidays, and a bit dusty from sitting in my hard drive for too long but still here nonetheless. And who doesn't enjoy a little fluff?
The Vitex/Torchwood Corporate Christmas Party was in full-swing downstairs. Dignitaries and delegates from the world over were drinking expensive Champaign along side lab techs and interns who hardly ever saw the light of day; forever hidden from the sun as they were in Torchwood Tower’s sub-basement labs, more often than not taking caffeine intravenous. But here on this one night of the year, Christmas Eve, they were allowed to relax from monitoring the skies and stars and knock elbows with the very highest of high society.
And of course the belle of the ball was Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler herself, wearing designer dresses and pearls that were worth three times her monthly wages back home, in her original universe.
If anything, this farce had made Jackie more humble, and Rose loved her for it, but even with all of the friends she’d made over the past few years gathering close and even with her oldest friend still by her side, and even with her mother and (pseudo) father happily married, and even with little Tony Tyler cuddled up to her because he’s far too excited to sleep the night before Christmas morning, Rose can’t help but feel that aching void that threatens to consume her. Even four years on Rose still feels the loss of the Doctor and the TARDIS as keenly as she did the day she was shut in this universe for good. Christmas was always that much worse for the memories of one’s spent with him. Cardiff 1869, when the Doctor was all big ears and leather, and then London 2005, when he’d brought her home as a Christmas present after regenerating, then fallen sick, and had proved himself the same man with one speech and a sword-fight. Christmases just weren’t the same without him. Then again, nothing was really the same without him.
The night was cold and overcast, so there was a good chance of snow before morning. The biscuits had been laid out in the private family parlor, the one with the private Christmas tree, decorated with gaudy tinsel, candy canes, and ornaments hand-made by Tony and Rose. Tomorrow morning the staff would be off, so a fire would be lit by Pete, Jackie would make tea, and Tony would dive into his presents while Rose manned the camcorder. Eventually the floor would be absolutely lost in wrapping paper and the family would curl up for another hour before the hassle of preparing Christmas dinner needed to begin. However, there was always one present that remained unopened. A comparatively small package, one wrapped in newspaper and with a tag that simply read, “To: the Doctor. With Love, Rose.”
After Tony was born Jackie had started hanging a stocking for the mad-man in pinstripes to “always remind them of who they had to thank for being here.” Rose knew better than to be bitter, especially when it had given her back Pete and Mickey, not to mention Tony.
Rose knew she wouldn’t be missed at the party, her mother was already through her fifth flute of Champaign, so Pete was busy looking after her, Mickey was busy chatting up the girl on the Torchwood medical team he fancied, and everyone else would be too busy with free booze or the complementary mistletoe to notice that the blonde in the blue dress had gone missing. So she sat with her brother on the sofa in the Pete’s study/library and stared at the few stars she could see through the clouds over the back garden. She’d put the radio on and “Silent Night” switched over to Frank Sinatra’s “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.” Rose wasn’t entirely sure why, but this song always made her tear up.
“What’s wrong Rosie? Why you crying?” Tony said lifting his cheek from her shoulder when he felt a tear drop onto his head.
“I’m alright Tony.” Rose said, wiping furiously at her eyes. “’s just this song, it makes me sad.”
“That’s a shame.” A male voice commented. It was a voice that shook Rose to the very core, she’d know it anywhere, it sounded like stars, and travel, and far off places she couldn’t pronounce, it sounded like pinstripes, and werewolves, and a Christmas invasion… It sounded an awful lot like the Doctor…
“It’s always been one of my favorites. It’s hopeful, and hope’s a good emotion, I quite like hope.”
Rose forced herself to turn around with her heart beating somewhere in the back of her throat. Forced herself because when she saw who it really was it was going to kill her, forced herself because she had to tell this random party-goer to leave, since he wasn’t allowed in the private wing of the mansion.
But when she finally did turn, and dear god it looked like him, all wild-hair, and mile-wide goofy grin, and pinstripe-suit with dirty chucks.
“Doctor?” Rose said, her voice was small and hopeful and it caught in her throat twice before his name got out on a whisper.
The Doctor’s grin widened and he pulled one hand from his pocket to wiggle his fingers at her in greeting, “That’s me, hello.”
“Are you- what- are you really here?”
“Well… I mean it’s all relative of course but yep, I’m as really here as you are!”
Rose could hardly fight back the tears in her eyes as she rushed towards his waiting arms.
“Doctor!” she cried.
“Hello, Rose Tyler.” He whispered into her hair.
Rose was jerked awake by a hand on her shoulder. She blinked her eyes blearily and looked around.
“Hmm?” she mumbled still not entirely sure what had happened, hadn’t the Doctor been here just a moment ago? Where was he now?
Jackie smoothed back her hair, “It’s time for bed sweetheart, the party’s over and you’re still in your dress.”
“I fell asleep?” she queried still not completely comprehending as a sleeping Tony was lifted from her lap and into Jackie’s arms.
“Yes, dear.” Jackie replied carrying Tony off to his own bed.
Rose fought back tears as she felt the disappointment of it all turn sour in her belly. The Doctor was never here; his present would remain unopened for yet another year.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The Doctor was sitting on the floor of the consol room his head in his hands; the TARDIS had landed but he was too scared to open the door.
Adelaide Brook had died because of him, because he hadn’t let time and history play out the way it was supposed to. She had understood that, she saw what he was and what he was becoming and she saved him from it.
Perhaps the Valeyard was finally making himself known. Perhaps from here on out the Doctor would do less fixing, and more destroying… perhaps he was more like the Master than he’d ever let himself believe.
Inside his head the TARDIS mourned with him, and her song was that much more sorrowful than usual. He’d been like this, wrapped up in misery and self-pity with the sight of that damned Ood trapped behind his eyelids, and his hearts pounding so hard in his chest that it was beginning to hurt.
As had become a habit over the past few years whenever the Doctor was feeling fowl his thoughts turned to the subject of a blonde woman… although this time not the usual blonde woman he thought of.
What he wouldn’t give for a cup of Jackie Tyler’s fabulous tea. While the woman’s Sheppard’s pie could fell a full grown seadragonus giganticus maximus, she had made him some of the best tea he’d ever had. The Doctor sometimes wondered how Rose Tyler could have survived being raised on Jackie’s cooking.
Oh, Rose.
The name still sent a wave of hurt through him which he quickly struggled down.
Rose Tyler was quickly forgotten however when the Doctor felt the TARDIS shift beneath him with the groaning wheeze, and jarring shudder that clearly indicated entering the Time Vortex. The Doctor was tossed about like a pinball until the TARDIS gave one last shriek in his head, landed, and promptly powered completely down.
She wasn’t dead, the Doctor could still feel her clearly in his mind, but she was exhausted, wherever they’d gone had been a very hard journey, and as much as the Doctor never wanted to leave the TARDIS again for fear of declaring himself the Time Lord Victorious in another fit of madness, he couldn’t deny that little feeling in the pit of his belly which said, “Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on.”
He didn’t bother to check the date or even where the TARDIS had taken him before stepping through the door.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Rose had heard it; she had heard the TARDIS materializing she was absolutely positive.
The fact that Jackie and Pete met her in the hallway asking what that noise was only made her heart beat faster. She wasn’t just dreaming it then.
Rushing to every window, Rose searched and searched for the source of the noise. It was too good to be true, but it had to be true!
The Doctor was here. He’d found a way. He’d finally come for her.
Finally Rose tore open the door to the back patio and there in front of her was the Doctor, looking tired, bewildered, and older than she’d ever seen him look before. He hadn’t changed, he was still all pinstripes, and really great hair, but he just looked so… weary. Her heart broke for him, and all she wanted in the world was to give him the hug he looked like he desperately needed.
“Rose?” The Doctor sounded like he couldn’t believe it.
“I heard it, the TARDIS. Thought I was dreaming.”
“This can’t be.” The Doctor stuttered running a hand through his hair and looking back and forth between Rose and the TARDIS. “It’s impossible!”
Rose frowned. “But you found a way through.”
“I didn’t do anything, I couldn’t. The TARDIS… she… she figured it out… she must have or else we’d be standing in a big pile of nothing right now… well not standing, and technically we wouldn’t even be there because there wouldn’t be any there for us to be in-“
“Doctor,” Rose was smiling.
“Hmmm?”
“Can I have a hug now?”
“Oh yes, of course.”
Rose wasn’t sure who moved first but it didn’t matter because she was in the Doctor’s arms and he was solid and real, and here.
“God I missed you!” Rose exclaimed into the fabric on his shoulder.
She could hear him smiling when he replied, “Yeah, I missed you too.”
When they parted again, they remained clasping hands, completely unwilling to be parted more than that.
“So you really didn’t find a way to cross the void.”
The Doctor sucked in a breath. “Much to my embarrassment, no, no I did not. If there were more Time Lords around I’d be able to do it no problem but, there being only me… it shouldn’t be possible.”
“But she did it.”
“Yeah she did… much the same way she fell through before I think, but more deliberate.”
“So is she?” Rose was suddenly quite concerned that the TARDIS had sacrificed herself to get him here.
“No, she’s just resting; the journey took a lot out of her.”
Rose walked up to the TARDIS and stroked her hand over the faded blue wooden exterior.
“Thank you.” She murmured.
The TARDIS hummed and the light on her roof flashed sluggishly.
“A few hours of rest an’ she’ll be good as new.” The Doctor reassured her.
By this time Jackie Tyler had made it down stairs and shrieked loudly.
“S’you!” She exclaimed, her hands covering her mouth. “You came back!”
What happened next the Doctor was not expecting. Jackie rushed forward and hugged the Doctor tightly, followed by a smack to the back of the head, followed by another hug.
The Doctor yelped indignantly.
“What a wonderful Christmas surprise eh, Rose?”
“It’s Christmas?” The Doctor asked.
“Just gone one, on the 25th of December.” Jackie replied.
“She brought me here for Christmas…” The Doctor mused, and Rose squeezed his hand with a smile.
“God, you look terrible Doctor!” Jackie exclaimed, and shushed him before he could protest. “Just give me a mo’ and I’ll go put the kettle on!”
When Jackie had finally left them alone the Doctor let a sigh escape him.
“What?” Rose asked.
“I’m having a hard time believing that this is real.”
“Me too.” Rose confessed, and they squeezed each other’s hands as if to hold onto this dream a bit more firmly.
“Rose Tyler, I would very much like to do something I’ve been putting off for a while now…” The Doctor said breaking the silence.
“What’s that?” Rose replied staring at him and noticed his eyes drop to her lips and she licked them reflexively making the Doctor swallow hard.
“I would very much like to kiss you.” He leaned in towards her but stopped a few millimeters short to ask, “Is that alright?”
“Oh god, yes!” Rose replied wrapping her arms around his neck and closing the distance between them.
“Now I’ve got - well it’s about bleedin’ time!” Jackie’s voice cut across the idyllic scene of the Doctor and Rose kissing in the Christmas snow. “Now get in here you two before you catch cold!”
“Actually-“ The Doctor started to speak but Jackie shushed him.
“I don’t care if you can’t actually get a cold from the cold, just get inside!”
With that the mad alien and the pink and yellow girl moved inside to the warm kitchen and Jackie looked out contentedly over her TARDIS-filled patio and back lawn.
“Thank you.” She whispered to no one in particular.
The TARDIS hummed tiredly, but happily in reply, having once again saved her Time lord from himself by reuniting him with the girl who once was and at the same time always would be the Bad Wolf.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A/N: First of all, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.
I would like it known that I was almost completely evil and stopped when Rose woke up, but as it was the holidays when I wrote this, it needed a happy ending.
I cry whenever I hear "I'll Be Home for Christmas," even more so when I almost don't make it home for Christmas. (Singing this to myself at three in the morning in a hotel room outside of London may be the most pitiful state I've ever been in.) Thus why Rose now cries when she hears the song.
Anyway, thanks again for reading!
Characters/Pairing: Doctor, Rose, Ten/Rose
Rating: PG, for fluff and angst together and at the same time. It's worth reading just to see how I do it.
Beta: None, mistakes are shamefully mine.
Spoilers: Nothing really, just a post-Doomsday AU.
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or the BBC, they own me.
Summary: I'll Be Home for Christmas by Frank Sinatra
Author's Note: So I wrote this for the sistersofguh Winter Romance-a-thon and finished it around the holidays, and then forgot about it... ("Doh!") So here it is, a bit late for the holidays, and a bit dusty from sitting in my hard drive for too long but still here nonetheless. And who doesn't enjoy a little fluff?
The Vitex/Torchwood Corporate Christmas Party was in full-swing downstairs. Dignitaries and delegates from the world over were drinking expensive Champaign along side lab techs and interns who hardly ever saw the light of day; forever hidden from the sun as they were in Torchwood Tower’s sub-basement labs, more often than not taking caffeine intravenous. But here on this one night of the year, Christmas Eve, they were allowed to relax from monitoring the skies and stars and knock elbows with the very highest of high society.
And of course the belle of the ball was Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler herself, wearing designer dresses and pearls that were worth three times her monthly wages back home, in her original universe.
If anything, this farce had made Jackie more humble, and Rose loved her for it, but even with all of the friends she’d made over the past few years gathering close and even with her oldest friend still by her side, and even with her mother and (pseudo) father happily married, and even with little Tony Tyler cuddled up to her because he’s far too excited to sleep the night before Christmas morning, Rose can’t help but feel that aching void that threatens to consume her. Even four years on Rose still feels the loss of the Doctor and the TARDIS as keenly as she did the day she was shut in this universe for good. Christmas was always that much worse for the memories of one’s spent with him. Cardiff 1869, when the Doctor was all big ears and leather, and then London 2005, when he’d brought her home as a Christmas present after regenerating, then fallen sick, and had proved himself the same man with one speech and a sword-fight. Christmases just weren’t the same without him. Then again, nothing was really the same without him.
The night was cold and overcast, so there was a good chance of snow before morning. The biscuits had been laid out in the private family parlor, the one with the private Christmas tree, decorated with gaudy tinsel, candy canes, and ornaments hand-made by Tony and Rose. Tomorrow morning the staff would be off, so a fire would be lit by Pete, Jackie would make tea, and Tony would dive into his presents while Rose manned the camcorder. Eventually the floor would be absolutely lost in wrapping paper and the family would curl up for another hour before the hassle of preparing Christmas dinner needed to begin. However, there was always one present that remained unopened. A comparatively small package, one wrapped in newspaper and with a tag that simply read, “To: the Doctor. With Love, Rose.”
After Tony was born Jackie had started hanging a stocking for the mad-man in pinstripes to “always remind them of who they had to thank for being here.” Rose knew better than to be bitter, especially when it had given her back Pete and Mickey, not to mention Tony.
Rose knew she wouldn’t be missed at the party, her mother was already through her fifth flute of Champaign, so Pete was busy looking after her, Mickey was busy chatting up the girl on the Torchwood medical team he fancied, and everyone else would be too busy with free booze or the complementary mistletoe to notice that the blonde in the blue dress had gone missing. So she sat with her brother on the sofa in the Pete’s study/library and stared at the few stars she could see through the clouds over the back garden. She’d put the radio on and “Silent Night” switched over to Frank Sinatra’s “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.” Rose wasn’t entirely sure why, but this song always made her tear up.
“What’s wrong Rosie? Why you crying?” Tony said lifting his cheek from her shoulder when he felt a tear drop onto his head.
“I’m alright Tony.” Rose said, wiping furiously at her eyes. “’s just this song, it makes me sad.”
“That’s a shame.” A male voice commented. It was a voice that shook Rose to the very core, she’d know it anywhere, it sounded like stars, and travel, and far off places she couldn’t pronounce, it sounded like pinstripes, and werewolves, and a Christmas invasion… It sounded an awful lot like the Doctor…
“It’s always been one of my favorites. It’s hopeful, and hope’s a good emotion, I quite like hope.”
Rose forced herself to turn around with her heart beating somewhere in the back of her throat. Forced herself because when she saw who it really was it was going to kill her, forced herself because she had to tell this random party-goer to leave, since he wasn’t allowed in the private wing of the mansion.
But when she finally did turn, and dear god it looked like him, all wild-hair, and mile-wide goofy grin, and pinstripe-suit with dirty chucks.
“Doctor?” Rose said, her voice was small and hopeful and it caught in her throat twice before his name got out on a whisper.
The Doctor’s grin widened and he pulled one hand from his pocket to wiggle his fingers at her in greeting, “That’s me, hello.”
“Are you- what- are you really here?”
“Well… I mean it’s all relative of course but yep, I’m as really here as you are!”
Rose could hardly fight back the tears in her eyes as she rushed towards his waiting arms.
“Doctor!” she cried.
“Hello, Rose Tyler.” He whispered into her hair.
Rose was jerked awake by a hand on her shoulder. She blinked her eyes blearily and looked around.
“Hmm?” she mumbled still not entirely sure what had happened, hadn’t the Doctor been here just a moment ago? Where was he now?
Jackie smoothed back her hair, “It’s time for bed sweetheart, the party’s over and you’re still in your dress.”
“I fell asleep?” she queried still not completely comprehending as a sleeping Tony was lifted from her lap and into Jackie’s arms.
“Yes, dear.” Jackie replied carrying Tony off to his own bed.
Rose fought back tears as she felt the disappointment of it all turn sour in her belly. The Doctor was never here; his present would remain unopened for yet another year.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The Doctor was sitting on the floor of the consol room his head in his hands; the TARDIS had landed but he was too scared to open the door.
Adelaide Brook had died because of him, because he hadn’t let time and history play out the way it was supposed to. She had understood that, she saw what he was and what he was becoming and she saved him from it.
Perhaps the Valeyard was finally making himself known. Perhaps from here on out the Doctor would do less fixing, and more destroying… perhaps he was more like the Master than he’d ever let himself believe.
Inside his head the TARDIS mourned with him, and her song was that much more sorrowful than usual. He’d been like this, wrapped up in misery and self-pity with the sight of that damned Ood trapped behind his eyelids, and his hearts pounding so hard in his chest that it was beginning to hurt.
As had become a habit over the past few years whenever the Doctor was feeling fowl his thoughts turned to the subject of a blonde woman… although this time not the usual blonde woman he thought of.
What he wouldn’t give for a cup of Jackie Tyler’s fabulous tea. While the woman’s Sheppard’s pie could fell a full grown seadragonus giganticus maximus, she had made him some of the best tea he’d ever had. The Doctor sometimes wondered how Rose Tyler could have survived being raised on Jackie’s cooking.
Oh, Rose.
The name still sent a wave of hurt through him which he quickly struggled down.
Rose Tyler was quickly forgotten however when the Doctor felt the TARDIS shift beneath him with the groaning wheeze, and jarring shudder that clearly indicated entering the Time Vortex. The Doctor was tossed about like a pinball until the TARDIS gave one last shriek in his head, landed, and promptly powered completely down.
She wasn’t dead, the Doctor could still feel her clearly in his mind, but she was exhausted, wherever they’d gone had been a very hard journey, and as much as the Doctor never wanted to leave the TARDIS again for fear of declaring himself the Time Lord Victorious in another fit of madness, he couldn’t deny that little feeling in the pit of his belly which said, “Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on.”
He didn’t bother to check the date or even where the TARDIS had taken him before stepping through the door.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Rose had heard it; she had heard the TARDIS materializing she was absolutely positive.
The fact that Jackie and Pete met her in the hallway asking what that noise was only made her heart beat faster. She wasn’t just dreaming it then.
Rushing to every window, Rose searched and searched for the source of the noise. It was too good to be true, but it had to be true!
The Doctor was here. He’d found a way. He’d finally come for her.
Finally Rose tore open the door to the back patio and there in front of her was the Doctor, looking tired, bewildered, and older than she’d ever seen him look before. He hadn’t changed, he was still all pinstripes, and really great hair, but he just looked so… weary. Her heart broke for him, and all she wanted in the world was to give him the hug he looked like he desperately needed.
“Rose?” The Doctor sounded like he couldn’t believe it.
“I heard it, the TARDIS. Thought I was dreaming.”
“This can’t be.” The Doctor stuttered running a hand through his hair and looking back and forth between Rose and the TARDIS. “It’s impossible!”
Rose frowned. “But you found a way through.”
“I didn’t do anything, I couldn’t. The TARDIS… she… she figured it out… she must have or else we’d be standing in a big pile of nothing right now… well not standing, and technically we wouldn’t even be there because there wouldn’t be any there for us to be in-“
“Doctor,” Rose was smiling.
“Hmmm?”
“Can I have a hug now?”
“Oh yes, of course.”
Rose wasn’t sure who moved first but it didn’t matter because she was in the Doctor’s arms and he was solid and real, and here.
“God I missed you!” Rose exclaimed into the fabric on his shoulder.
She could hear him smiling when he replied, “Yeah, I missed you too.”
When they parted again, they remained clasping hands, completely unwilling to be parted more than that.
“So you really didn’t find a way to cross the void.”
The Doctor sucked in a breath. “Much to my embarrassment, no, no I did not. If there were more Time Lords around I’d be able to do it no problem but, there being only me… it shouldn’t be possible.”
“But she did it.”
“Yeah she did… much the same way she fell through before I think, but more deliberate.”
“So is she?” Rose was suddenly quite concerned that the TARDIS had sacrificed herself to get him here.
“No, she’s just resting; the journey took a lot out of her.”
Rose walked up to the TARDIS and stroked her hand over the faded blue wooden exterior.
“Thank you.” She murmured.
The TARDIS hummed and the light on her roof flashed sluggishly.
“A few hours of rest an’ she’ll be good as new.” The Doctor reassured her.
By this time Jackie Tyler had made it down stairs and shrieked loudly.
“S’you!” She exclaimed, her hands covering her mouth. “You came back!”
What happened next the Doctor was not expecting. Jackie rushed forward and hugged the Doctor tightly, followed by a smack to the back of the head, followed by another hug.
The Doctor yelped indignantly.
“What a wonderful Christmas surprise eh, Rose?”
“It’s Christmas?” The Doctor asked.
“Just gone one, on the 25th of December.” Jackie replied.
“She brought me here for Christmas…” The Doctor mused, and Rose squeezed his hand with a smile.
“God, you look terrible Doctor!” Jackie exclaimed, and shushed him before he could protest. “Just give me a mo’ and I’ll go put the kettle on!”
When Jackie had finally left them alone the Doctor let a sigh escape him.
“What?” Rose asked.
“I’m having a hard time believing that this is real.”
“Me too.” Rose confessed, and they squeezed each other’s hands as if to hold onto this dream a bit more firmly.
“Rose Tyler, I would very much like to do something I’ve been putting off for a while now…” The Doctor said breaking the silence.
“What’s that?” Rose replied staring at him and noticed his eyes drop to her lips and she licked them reflexively making the Doctor swallow hard.
“I would very much like to kiss you.” He leaned in towards her but stopped a few millimeters short to ask, “Is that alright?”
“Oh god, yes!” Rose replied wrapping her arms around his neck and closing the distance between them.
“Now I’ve got - well it’s about bleedin’ time!” Jackie’s voice cut across the idyllic scene of the Doctor and Rose kissing in the Christmas snow. “Now get in here you two before you catch cold!”
“Actually-“ The Doctor started to speak but Jackie shushed him.
“I don’t care if you can’t actually get a cold from the cold, just get inside!”
With that the mad alien and the pink and yellow girl moved inside to the warm kitchen and Jackie looked out contentedly over her TARDIS-filled patio and back lawn.
“Thank you.” She whispered to no one in particular.
The TARDIS hummed tiredly, but happily in reply, having once again saved her Time lord from himself by reuniting him with the girl who once was and at the same time always would be the Bad Wolf.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A/N: First of all, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.
I would like it known that I was almost completely evil and stopped when Rose woke up, but as it was the holidays when I wrote this, it needed a happy ending.
I cry whenever I hear "I'll Be Home for Christmas," even more so when I almost don't make it home for Christmas. (Singing this to myself at three in the morning in a hotel room outside of London may be the most pitiful state I've ever been in.) Thus why Rose now cries when she hears the song.
Anyway, thanks again for reading!