Fic: Two Coins, Silver 10/10 (Doctor Who, Realignment 'verse) Complete!
Story Title: Two Coins, Silver (10/10)
Series Title: part of the Realignment universe
Author: butterfly
Summary: It's not exactly the honeymoon of anyone's dreams.
Pairing: Doctor/Rose
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: AU after Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords". Some plot elements and lines from "The Voyage of the Damned", written by Russell T Davies.
Previous Parts: One; Two; Three; Four; Five; Six; Seven; Eight; Nine.
Two Coins, Silver
“How are you feeling?”
Rose slowly opened her eyes, trying to figure out if she was dreaming. It seemed to be the Doctor, all right, but his voice had gone gentle and... he was looking at her. He had a soft smile on his face and his eyes were warm and welcoming. All of the distance and coldness from earlier was just... gone and as glad as she was of that, it would be nice to know why.
He was still wearing the black tie that he'd put on for the Titanic but she had the chance to notice now, as she hadn't before, exactly how dusty and stained it was from his trip through the ship. She could see the line of his throat and there was a bit of dirt just to the right of his adam's apple.
“Better,” she said, shifting up a bit on the table so that she could take a closer look at him. His left sleeve had been torn and she could see the red-brown rust of blood on the side of his hand. She parted her lips, her hand twitching to reach out to him but still unsure whether or not she should. Would it be welcomed after the fight that they'd had earlier? Did she still know how to read him after eight years away from him?
“I invited one of the Titanic passengers to dinner with us, if that's all right with you,” he said. Was he asking her permission? Even the notion of him inviting another person on board was rather unprecedented - she'd had to push him into asking Sarah Jane along all those years ago. Of course, after a couple of years without her, she had to assume that he'd invited other people to travel with him - Martha, Jack, maybe others, though he probably didn't have time for too many others.
She did know that he'd told Reinette that he would take her on a trip. He'd mentioned that to her a couple of months afterwards, after Mickey had gone and they'd been on their own again.
“All right,” Rose said. “Who- who is it?”
“His name is Mr. Copper,” the Doctor said. His words released a tension that she hadn't been aware she'd been carrying - not that tiny blonde girl from earlier, then.
“And what's he called when he's at home?” Rose asked archly. The Doctor looked at her blankly. She sighed, trying and failing to move one of her legs off the table. “Does he have a first name?”
“Ah. I didn't ask,” the Doctor said, reaching up to tug at his ear. “Do you think I should've?”
“I will,” Rose promised. “Will... am I going to be all right for dinner? Will I be able to walk?”
“Oh, sure,” he said, perking up. “Should be right as rain in a few hours. Funny old expression 'right as rain'. Rain isn't particularly right, left, or wrong. It's just... wet. It sounds good, though, which is probably why it survives so long. Lots of sayings disappear within decades, but 'right as rain' lasts well into the sixty-first century, long after people have stopped talking about wetting their whistles or blue moons. Well... except on planets that have blue moons. I should take you to one of those - Mua Six has a lovely blue moon. It's really more of a cyan, I suppose, but if you're in the city, the pollution makes it look like a much brighter and truer blue. Would you like that... to go to Mua Six?”
During his ramble, he wandered closer and closer to her, until he ended up perched on the high stool that was near the table. He took one of her hands between his and gave her a wide, hopeful smile.
“Maybe later,” Rose said, biting her lip. “Doctor - did you want to say anything else?”
He opened his mouth, looking eager.
“About what we were talking about earlier,” Rose clarified. He promptly shut his mouth, his expression turning vaguely sulky. He'd decided that he didn't want to talk, then, that he would prefer to sweep everything that he'd said under the rug and just move on. Well, Rose wasn't prepared to do that. “About you thinking that I don't trust you.”
“Not particularly,” he said. Even his hair seemed to be expressing his extreme disinterest in pursuing the subject.
“I do,” Rose said, firmly. “Doctor, you told me that I was gone for just over two years for you - is that right?”
“Yes, of course it is,” the Doctor said.
“You need to remember that, for me, I was away for eight years,” Rose said. “I got used to handling things on my own. I got used to... not having a partner. It's not about trust, Doctor. It's about getting used to knowing that I have someone with me that I do trust, absolutely, because I didn't have that for eight years. It's going to take time for me to adjust, but that doesn't mean that I don't trust you.”
The Doctor nodded, looking thoughtful. One of his hands slid up to her wrist and began rubbing along the lines of the bracelet that he'd given her. It made her shiver, a bit.
“Didn't you have a team?” the Doctor asked, angling his head curiously.
“They weren't you,” Rose said, with a rueful shrug. “Not that they weren't great people and quite good at their jobs, but once you've travelled with a Time Lord... no one else quite compares.”
The Doctor's smirk was smug and annoying and very, very dear.
“Maybe I shouldn't have told you that,” Rose said, raising an eyebrow. His smirk only deepened and he leaned forward and lightly kissed her - just a quick, casual buss, but it left her blinking.
“You're really rather wonderful,” the Doctor said, with a beaming smile and a bit of a bounce as he sat back again. “If I haven't said recently.”
“I'm always open to compliments,” Rose said, lifting up one of his hands and kissing his palm. She could taste the slightly-iron taste of her blood there. She brought his hand down into her lap, tangling their fingers together. “So, we've determined that I trust you and, also, that I need to work on remembering to show you that. Anything else we should clear up?”
The Doctor hesitated, looking conflicted.
“Astrid Peth - she used to be one of the Titanic crew - she kissed me,” he said. “And... I think that she would have wanted to do more than that.”
“All right,” Rose said, tamping down that flash of jealousy - she remembered Astrid Peth calling up to the bridge to get that teleport bracelet working. She'd wanted to help the Doctor and that, at least, deserved respect. “Is... is that something that I should worry about?”
“She died,” the Doctor said, a shadow of pain crossing over his face. “She died to save us all.”
“I'm sorry,” Rose said, slightly awkwardly. She tightened her hand around the Doctor's. “She... she sounded nice. On the comm system.”
“She was,” the Doctor said. “She was very sweet.”
He looked down at their clasped hands. She didn't know exactly how to read his expression - there was sadness there, but also resignation, maybe, but it was hard to tell for sure. After a moment, the corner of his mouth kicked up in a tiny smile, which only confused the issue further.
“I wasn't sure what your policy is on that sort of thing,” he said.
“What sort of thing?” Rose asked, not sure what room she could have to complain about Astrid having been sweet. It's not like she could or would make all the people who lusted after the Doctor horrible people. She just... didn't particularly want him to be lusting back after them.
“Being kissed or... I suppose... kissing other people,” the Doctor said. “Initially, I had assumed that you would mind, given your reaction to Sarah Jane, but then I remembered the way you used to flirt with Jack and Mickey-”
“Oh! That's just not fair!”
“So I thought perhaps not,” he finished, blinking at her innocently. She didn't buy it for a minute, but was willing to let it go for the sake of the peace. They were actually getting somewhere here and she didn't want to ruin that by changing the subject.
“What's... your policy?”
“Time Lord society was incredibly stuffy about romance and marriage and everything related to those subjects,” he said. It seemed a lot easier for him to talk about his people now - maybe it was related to seeing Koschei again and losing him. “I'm open to suggestions.”
“I'm going to say 'no' on the kissing other people issue,” Rose said, watching him carefully. He let out a tiny breath of relief, which was... good to know. “But considering how much of a delicate hothouse flower you are-”
“I am not!”
“I tend to believe that you were kissed rather than kissing,” Rose said.
“Ah. Well. The first time,” he said.
“There was a second time?” Rose asked, not quite able to push back her indignation.
“Sort of,” he said. “Not really. It depends on your philosophical beliefs.”
Rose opened her mouth and then gave the Doctor a considering look. She paused for a moment, giving him a good long stare. He just looked placidly back and whatever it was, it certainly wasn't something that he was feeling guilty about - he'd looked more guilty about the kiss that he'd said that Astrid had initiated.
“You know what,” she said, thoughtfully. “I don't want to know.”
“Are you sure about that?” And that was genuine curiosity there, which told her all that she needed to - maybe he'd kissed Astrid while she lay there dying or something equally heroic and she couldn't... she couldn't fault him for that. She might have done the same herself, in a similar situation or, say, with someone like Jack, who had fought so hard for all of them.
“Dead sure,” she said. “Let's just say that, from now on, there'll be no intentional kissing of other people.”
“Deal!” the Doctor said cheerfully, leaning forward to seal their arrangement with another soft, quick kiss. “It's good to clear things like that up. You didn't happen to... um...”
He trailed off and gave her an imploring look, his eyes wide and sad.
“I didn't,” Rose said, taking pity on him. He was worse at this than any other man she'd ever been with in a relationship. It was even sort of endearing, in a pathetic way. “For such an arrogant man, you're very insecure.”
“I'm not arrogant, just extremely good at a wide range of subjects,” the Doctor protested. “It's not arrogance if it's earned.”
Rose opened her mouth to tease him and ended up surprising herself when she yawned instead. It was loud and wide, popping her jaw a bit.
“Ah, your recovery period has been triggered,” the Doctor said, reaching up and stroking her hair - it was loose around her shoulders now, though she didn't remember when it had fallen down. He ran his fingers all the way through, several times, gently working out some small tangles. “You'll probably sleep now for a few hours and, when you wake, you'll be well enough to walk. Though I wouldn't recommend running.”
“I don't feel tired,” she told him and it was true - her head felt a bit fuzzy, but she wasn't sleepy. “And I want to talk to you about... very important things, Doctor.”
“I know,” he said, leaning over. She felt the cool brush of his lips on her forehead and she smiled without even really thinking about it, comforted by his touch. “Rest now, so that we can do that later.”
Rose squinted at him - he was looking fairly blurry now and she started to blink to clear her eyes.
When she opened her eyes again, the Doctor was gone. So, for that matter, was her dress - at least, the bit over her stomach that had been ripped and bloody had been very carefully cut off, so that her dress had become more a shirt and skirt. Rose reached down and shook out the skirt, watching some black flecks fall out and land on the smooth floor of the medical bay.
Before today, she hadn't really spent much time in this room - once, back in her first year on the TARDIS, Jack's arm had gotten sliced up after flirting with what had looked like a dinosaur. She'd hopped up over onto the counter and watched from there as the Doctor had casually run something over Jack's cut and declared him 'better', but she'd seen Jack wincing later. That was the only time she'd been in here before and she'd been distracted by Jack's joking around with her, so she hadn't really studied the room. It was larger than any doctor's office that she'd ever visited on Earth - not that she'd seen many - and while the simple white floor might have been at home in one of those doctors' offices, the green and golden bulges in the walls decidedly would not. There was the cushioned table in the center of the room, which had been much more comfortable that she would have guessed, stools of various heights on one side of the room and hundreds of different drawers built into the wall, of all sort of sizes and shapes.
Rose very slowly levered herself to the side and tried to ease herself to the ground, letting out a sigh of relief when her legs were willing to hold her up. She still felt a bit weak, but she wasn't going to fall over.
The cold temperature of the floor made her realize that her shoes had also been removed. She wiggled her toes and was thrilled to see and feel them respond. She glanced around but didn't see any sign of her missing footwear. Well, that was probably for the best. She'd need to change for dinner anyway, so she might as well go do that now.
She rested one hand on the wall as she walked, feeling supported not just physically, but emotionally. She could feel the hum of the ship through her fingertips and the rough texture of the walls helped her remember all over again that the Doctor's ship was alive. It was more than just a ship, it was a friend.
The way down to the wardrobe room was much shorter than it should be from where she'd started, so Rose breathed a soft 'thank you' to the TARDIS. Finding a comfortable set of clothes was also easy - right near the front of the room was a soft, knee-length skirt in black, with a cushy red top hanging up next to it. The top itself was supported, so she wouldn't even need to struggle with a bra which might, she had to admit, be beyond her at the moment. The clothes slipped on easily, with no fastenings to worry about and, in a small cubby, she saw a pair of dark slippers that looked close to perfect at the moment.
It had taken her over half an hour to get dressed, by her own guess. It wasn't hard to move, but everything just seemed to take so much longer than normal. It was a bit like being really, really sick, but without feeling nauseous or in pain.
“Ah, I hoped you'd found your way down here.”
Rose turned around and the Doctor was standing in the doorway - he was wearing a blue suit now, one that she'd never seen before.
“When did you get a new suit?” she asked.
“Do you like it?” he asked, bounding up to her, all boyish enthusiasm. Rose bit her lip and slowly looked him over - the color didn't match him as well as the brown one, but... well, it was the Doctor and he'd probably look good in anything. The suit was fitted very well and she had only barely resisted the urge to ask him to turn around so that she could get a rear view.
“It'll do.” She shrugged, a teasing smile on her face.
“Is that all?” he asked.
In answer, Rose reached out toward the sharp lapels of his new suit and tugged him down toward her, claiming his mouth. Like all of their kisses, it was still relatively chaste, yet her heart thrummed in her chest. She dared to lick her tongue along the boundary of his mouth and his lips parted obediently. She pressed closer, her body humming everywhere that it touched his. She could feel one of his hands spread out on her back, holding her closer yet and his other hand cupped the back of her neck. His own tongue had just started to respond when a loud cough startled both of them.
“Took you long enough,” the man - presumably Mr. Copper - said. It was the older man that she remembered seeing on the bridge before the Doctor had taken her down to the TARDIS. “That's the third time I've tried to get your attention.”
“I'm sorry,” Rose said. She pulled away from the Doctor a bit and smiled at Mr. Copper. “It's lovely to properly meet you. I'm Rose Tyler.”
“What a beautiful name,” Mr. Copper said. “I'm Beatifimus Copper, lately of Sto. I believe that your Doctor said that you're from my new home, Earth?”
“I was born there,” Rose said. “But my home is here on the TARDIS.”
“Now, I know that the Doctor said that word earlier, but what exactly is it?” Mr. Copper asked, blinking. Rose glanced over at the Doctor, biting her lip hopefully. He waved her on, a soft smile on his face.
“That's the name of the Doctor's ship,” she said. “T-A-R-D-I-S. It stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.”
“Did you say time?” Mr. Copper asked. “Time Lord isn't just a title?”
“Isn't just a what?” the Doctor squawked. “Of course, it isn't just a title. I travel in time and space. What did you think that 'Time Lord' meant?”
“Oh, I just assumed that it was one of those nonsense titles that nobility gave themselves,” Mr. Copper said, vaguely. Rose didn't bother to hide her giggles. The Doctor glared at her and she laughed harder. “I'm sorry for assuming that.”
“Don't worry about it,” Rose said, once she'd gotten herself under control. “Now, sir, do you prefer to be called 'Mr. Copper'?”
“Oh my vot, I don't know...” the man paused, looking thoughtful. Rose wrinkled her nose - had he really said 'vot'? She'd have to ask the Doctor about that later, when they had more time. “My sister used to call me Beatty. I rather miss it.”
“Well, Beatty, the Doctor and I were planning to be going to a friend's for dinner - if the Doctor hasn't already invited you, I am,” Rose said, reaching up to fiddle with an earring, only to notice that she hadn't put any on. She changed the gesture into one of tucking her hair behind her ear and tried to figure out exactly when she'd lost her earrings. The Doctor must have taken them out while she'd been asleep.
“I'm looking forward to a genuine Christmas dinner very much,” Beatty said. “It's all quite exciting for me! I love travelling and the Doctor saved me from... from quite an awful fate.”
“Yeah,” Rose said, turning back to the Doctor and placing her hand into his. “He does that a lot.”
The Doctor smiled at her and tugged on her hand, pulling her forward to share another tiny kiss, his nose brushing against hers when he leaned back again. “Shall we?” he asked, looking over at Beatty.
“Indeed!” Beatty laughed out loud. “Lead the way!”
As they walked toward the exit, Rose tilted her head toward the Doctor and lowered her voice, “How close are we to Martha's?”
“Just outside her door,” he said, smugly.
“Did you check?” Rose asked. “Because you said you were certain last time and we were in the middle of Hyde Park. Which, let me remind you, is not where Martha lives.”
“Yes, I looked outside and checked,” he said, his smugness fading slightly. Rose swung their hands once and he chuckled. When they reached the TARDIS door, the Doctor made a point of skipping forward, opening the door theatrically and ushering the two of them through it. Once they were out, he took Rose's hand again.
Rose looked at the neighborhood around them and let out a low whistle. Martha's folks had a properly-built house, with a wall and a gate and everything. Rose couldn't imagine what that must be like, to live in that sort of place, where you didn't have a neighbor living right against the wall next to you - Rose couldn't count the number of times she'd heard arguments through the walls of her mum's place or Mickey's. Or the memorable occasions when, at Mickey's, they'd shagged loudly enough to have earned his next-door neighbor banging on the wall to try to make them stop or quiet down.
The Doctor pressed the buzzer at the front door and a middle-aged lady, probably the same age as Mum was now, answered the door. She had to be Martha's mum or maybe an aunt - apart from skin color, they had some similar facial features. She had some lovely curly hair, too.
“Mrs. Jones!” the Doctor said, cheerfully. “Here I am!”
“Hmph,” the woman confirmed as Martha's mum said. “She wasn't expecting you to actually show up.”
“Oh,” the Doctor said, deflating. “She wasn't?”
“She hoped, though,” Mrs. Jones admitted. She looked over at Rose and Rose fought the urge to squirm under the woman's attention - the look on her face was oddly reminiscent of the women who would come into Henrik's and treat Rose like she didn't matter because she was just staff. “You must be Rose.”
She sounded rather like she was hoping that she was wrong.
“You're here!” came a squeal from inside. Martha popped out from around her mother and she pounced on the Doctor with a tight hug. He was laughing as he hugged her back. As soon as she released the Doctor, she wrapped herself around Rose. “I'm so glad you came,” she whispered in Rose's ear. “I'm just bursting with news.”
She pulled away and Rose finally got a good look at her - she was fairly glowing and she looked absolutely gorgeous. Her hair was down around her shoulders and she had on a simple and elegant black dress that showed off her truly enviable figure.
“Who's your friend?” Martha asked.
“Ah,” the Doctor said. “This is my good friend Beatifimus Copper, also known as Beatty. He was of great help for me in the latest Christmas disaster. Beatty, this is my dear friend Martha and her... very strong mother, Francine Jones.”
“That was about the replica of the Titanic that almost fell on London?” Martha asked, looking faintly jealous.
“You could tell that it was the Titanic from here?” he asked, bemused. “Well-spotted.”
“We guessed that you were involved in that,” Mrs. Jones said, but... she was a bit amused, too. “Martha assured us that you would save us all from death and destruction.”
“And so I did,” the Doctor said, pushing past her into the house. Mrs. Jones stared after him and Rose made sure to reach out to touch her arm reassuringly when she went inside, and Mrs. Jones rolled her eyes and then smiled reluctantly.
“Everyone here knows about the Doctor,” she said to Rose. “So, none of you have to be careful about what you say.”
“Thank you very much for having us,” Rose said, following Mrs. Jones into the room - in short order, she was introduced to Martha's father, Clive, her sister Tish, and her brother Leo.
They were short one place at the table, but Mrs. Jones soon sorted that out with an extra chair from the hallway and they were seated down at Mr. Copper's very first Christmas dinner - a fact that he pointed out to the table proudly, which helped start a discussion right off the bat.
And it gave Rose the chance to turn to the Doctor, who was sitting next to her, and mouth, “I love you,” to him. He smiled back at her, reaching out to briefly squeeze her hand under the table.
Then they turned back to their Christmas dinner and the Jones clan and a lot of laughter.
After the dinner, Martha tugged Rose off to the side. She seemed just about ready to explode.
"You said you had news," Rose said. "Did you not want to say it in front of the Doctor?"
Martha dimmed slightly. "Things with the Doctor are... still a bit odd," she said. "I mean, I like you, Rose, so much more than I was expecting to, but I'm not in the right place to tell him this. Not yet. Soon, I hope."
"What is it?" Rose asked.
"I've been seeing this bloke, ever since I came back," Martha said. Then she paused for a moment and shook her head. "Well, I actually met him before that, but it happened during that year that never happened, so he doesn't remember it. But I remembered him and how brave he was, so I looked him up. We've been going out since then and... he's asked me to marry him."
"That's wonderful," Rose asked. Martha looked off to the side, less enthusiastic than before. "Isn't it?"
"It is," she said. "And I've told him 'yes' but I wanted..."
"Wanted what?" Rose asked.
"To ask you how you knew... that the Doctor was the right bloke for you," Martha said. "You waited for years for him in that parallel world."
"But I didn't," Rose said. "I mean, yes, I waited over four years and then... I gave up. I dated another man and very nearly married him."
"You didn't, though," Martha said, looking down at her hands. Rose could see her ring, now, sparkling on her left hand. "What made you realize that... no matter what... the Doctor was the only man that you wanted?"
"Mark was a good man," Rose said. She smiled, a little wistfully. "Probably better than I deserved, especially at the time. I was so angry, Martha. For two years, I was furious at... at everything. At the universe for keeping us apart. At my father for saving me. At everyone who told me to give up on finding the Doctor ever again."
Rose hesitated and Martha reached down and grabbed her hands. Rose smiled slightly despite herself, glad that the Doctor had known such a good person while Rose had been gone.
"I was angry at the Doctor," Rose said, softly. "Because he didn't even try. He said it was impossible and I knew that meant that he wouldn't even try. I loved him so much and he... he couldn't say the words back. Not back then."
"But it's obvious how much he loves you," Martha said. "Long before I'd ever met you, I knew that much."
"I never doubted that he did," Rose said. "But I was a twenty-one year-old girl. It would have been nice to hear it."
"You were that young?" Martha asked, sounding half-way between dubious and horrified. Rose laughed.
"I was nineteen the first time that the Doctor kissed me," she said. She was glad that she could remember that now, however faint the memory still felt at times. "Of course, that was to save my life."
"Yeah," Martha said, with a snort. "The first time we met, he kissed me to fool a bunch of Judoon that were out for alien fugitives."
"He does a lot of kissing, this regeneration," Rose mused.
"I can't say that I objected," Martha said, with a guilty smile. "But that doesn't... that doesn't answer my question - how did you know that he was the right one?"
"Because, even when I hated him," Rose said, tightening her grip on Martha's hands. "Even when I was so mad at him that I could have gladly hit him over the head with one of his mallets, I still knew that I wanted to be with him. A miserable time with the Doctor - like one of the many times we got imprisoned in some dank cell - was still more memorable and enjoyable than anything I ever did with anyone else. Sometimes... most of the time... I feel like my life didn't really begin until he reached out and took my hand in his. Since then, the TARDIS has become my home and his life... it's not everything I ever wanted. It's more. It's everything that I never even tried dreaming that I could have. If you're asking how I knew he was the right man because you want to know if your... what's his name?"
"Tom," Martha whispered.
"Because you want to know if your Tom is the 'right' man for you, I don't think I can answer that," Rose said. "I don't even know if I believe that it's true that there is a single right person. I know that the Doctor makes my heart beat faster, but other men have done that. The Doctor makes life enjoyable, but other men have done that, too. I don't know. I look at him and... I can imagine spending the rest of my life with him and it doesn't matter if we're chasing aliens or travelling to distant planets or just... lying on the grass having a laugh. If it's with him, then I'm going to love it. So, I suppose that I'd ask you that - even when everything is going horribly, do you still want to be with him?"
Martha looked up at Rose, a glorious smile blooming on her face.
"Yes," she said, with deep certainty. "If the whole world had gone to hell, I would want him by my side."
"Then that's your answer," Rose said. "Someone that you still want to be with in the worst times... and who feels the same way about you... that's a person worth hanging onto - no matter what."
Rose looked down at their clasped hands - Martha with her ring on her finger and Rose with her bracelet around her wrist. Having a visible reminder of another person's love was... comforting, Rose had to admit.
"Thank you," Martha said, softly.
"You're welcome," Rose said. "Just remember to invite us to the wedding."
Martha laughed and Rose joined her. Then, they made their way back to the main group. Rose caught the Doctor's eye and he hurried over to her.
"Nothing's wrong, I trust," he said, looking slightly worried.
"Nothing's wrong," Rose reassured him and then she impulsively hugged him. She buried her head against his shoulder, inhaling deeply, just trying to capture this moment with him. When she lifted her head again, a flash of motion caught her eye - out the window, on the street, there was the blonde woman from before all this had started, the one that had warned her. She slowly placed a finger over her lips, smiled, and then turned and walked down the street, out of sight. Rose frowned slightly, but she'd be in no condition to run after the woman like this... and the Doctor would tell her not to muck about with timelines, so there wasn't much she could do right now.
So, she forced herself to let it go for the moment and turned back to the Doctor with a smile.
After all, the woman had promised that they would meet again.
Sometime in Rose's future.
~The End~
Continue on to A Most Noble Undertaking
Series Title: part of the Realignment universe
Author: butterfly
Summary: It's not exactly the honeymoon of anyone's dreams.
Pairing: Doctor/Rose
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: AU after Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords". Some plot elements and lines from "The Voyage of the Damned", written by Russell T Davies.
Previous Parts: One; Two; Three; Four; Five; Six; Seven; Eight; Nine.
Two Coins, Silver
“How are you feeling?”
Rose slowly opened her eyes, trying to figure out if she was dreaming. It seemed to be the Doctor, all right, but his voice had gone gentle and... he was looking at her. He had a soft smile on his face and his eyes were warm and welcoming. All of the distance and coldness from earlier was just... gone and as glad as she was of that, it would be nice to know why.
He was still wearing the black tie that he'd put on for the Titanic but she had the chance to notice now, as she hadn't before, exactly how dusty and stained it was from his trip through the ship. She could see the line of his throat and there was a bit of dirt just to the right of his adam's apple.
“Better,” she said, shifting up a bit on the table so that she could take a closer look at him. His left sleeve had been torn and she could see the red-brown rust of blood on the side of his hand. She parted her lips, her hand twitching to reach out to him but still unsure whether or not she should. Would it be welcomed after the fight that they'd had earlier? Did she still know how to read him after eight years away from him?
“I invited one of the Titanic passengers to dinner with us, if that's all right with you,” he said. Was he asking her permission? Even the notion of him inviting another person on board was rather unprecedented - she'd had to push him into asking Sarah Jane along all those years ago. Of course, after a couple of years without her, she had to assume that he'd invited other people to travel with him - Martha, Jack, maybe others, though he probably didn't have time for too many others.
She did know that he'd told Reinette that he would take her on a trip. He'd mentioned that to her a couple of months afterwards, after Mickey had gone and they'd been on their own again.
“All right,” Rose said. “Who- who is it?”
“His name is Mr. Copper,” the Doctor said. His words released a tension that she hadn't been aware she'd been carrying - not that tiny blonde girl from earlier, then.
“And what's he called when he's at home?” Rose asked archly. The Doctor looked at her blankly. She sighed, trying and failing to move one of her legs off the table. “Does he have a first name?”
“Ah. I didn't ask,” the Doctor said, reaching up to tug at his ear. “Do you think I should've?”
“I will,” Rose promised. “Will... am I going to be all right for dinner? Will I be able to walk?”
“Oh, sure,” he said, perking up. “Should be right as rain in a few hours. Funny old expression 'right as rain'. Rain isn't particularly right, left, or wrong. It's just... wet. It sounds good, though, which is probably why it survives so long. Lots of sayings disappear within decades, but 'right as rain' lasts well into the sixty-first century, long after people have stopped talking about wetting their whistles or blue moons. Well... except on planets that have blue moons. I should take you to one of those - Mua Six has a lovely blue moon. It's really more of a cyan, I suppose, but if you're in the city, the pollution makes it look like a much brighter and truer blue. Would you like that... to go to Mua Six?”
During his ramble, he wandered closer and closer to her, until he ended up perched on the high stool that was near the table. He took one of her hands between his and gave her a wide, hopeful smile.
“Maybe later,” Rose said, biting her lip. “Doctor - did you want to say anything else?”
He opened his mouth, looking eager.
“About what we were talking about earlier,” Rose clarified. He promptly shut his mouth, his expression turning vaguely sulky. He'd decided that he didn't want to talk, then, that he would prefer to sweep everything that he'd said under the rug and just move on. Well, Rose wasn't prepared to do that. “About you thinking that I don't trust you.”
“Not particularly,” he said. Even his hair seemed to be expressing his extreme disinterest in pursuing the subject.
“I do,” Rose said, firmly. “Doctor, you told me that I was gone for just over two years for you - is that right?”
“Yes, of course it is,” the Doctor said.
“You need to remember that, for me, I was away for eight years,” Rose said. “I got used to handling things on my own. I got used to... not having a partner. It's not about trust, Doctor. It's about getting used to knowing that I have someone with me that I do trust, absolutely, because I didn't have that for eight years. It's going to take time for me to adjust, but that doesn't mean that I don't trust you.”
The Doctor nodded, looking thoughtful. One of his hands slid up to her wrist and began rubbing along the lines of the bracelet that he'd given her. It made her shiver, a bit.
“Didn't you have a team?” the Doctor asked, angling his head curiously.
“They weren't you,” Rose said, with a rueful shrug. “Not that they weren't great people and quite good at their jobs, but once you've travelled with a Time Lord... no one else quite compares.”
The Doctor's smirk was smug and annoying and very, very dear.
“Maybe I shouldn't have told you that,” Rose said, raising an eyebrow. His smirk only deepened and he leaned forward and lightly kissed her - just a quick, casual buss, but it left her blinking.
“You're really rather wonderful,” the Doctor said, with a beaming smile and a bit of a bounce as he sat back again. “If I haven't said recently.”
“I'm always open to compliments,” Rose said, lifting up one of his hands and kissing his palm. She could taste the slightly-iron taste of her blood there. She brought his hand down into her lap, tangling their fingers together. “So, we've determined that I trust you and, also, that I need to work on remembering to show you that. Anything else we should clear up?”
The Doctor hesitated, looking conflicted.
“Astrid Peth - she used to be one of the Titanic crew - she kissed me,” he said. “And... I think that she would have wanted to do more than that.”
“All right,” Rose said, tamping down that flash of jealousy - she remembered Astrid Peth calling up to the bridge to get that teleport bracelet working. She'd wanted to help the Doctor and that, at least, deserved respect. “Is... is that something that I should worry about?”
“She died,” the Doctor said, a shadow of pain crossing over his face. “She died to save us all.”
“I'm sorry,” Rose said, slightly awkwardly. She tightened her hand around the Doctor's. “She... she sounded nice. On the comm system.”
“She was,” the Doctor said. “She was very sweet.”
He looked down at their clasped hands. She didn't know exactly how to read his expression - there was sadness there, but also resignation, maybe, but it was hard to tell for sure. After a moment, the corner of his mouth kicked up in a tiny smile, which only confused the issue further.
“I wasn't sure what your policy is on that sort of thing,” he said.
“What sort of thing?” Rose asked, not sure what room she could have to complain about Astrid having been sweet. It's not like she could or would make all the people who lusted after the Doctor horrible people. She just... didn't particularly want him to be lusting back after them.
“Being kissed or... I suppose... kissing other people,” the Doctor said. “Initially, I had assumed that you would mind, given your reaction to Sarah Jane, but then I remembered the way you used to flirt with Jack and Mickey-”
“Oh! That's just not fair!”
“So I thought perhaps not,” he finished, blinking at her innocently. She didn't buy it for a minute, but was willing to let it go for the sake of the peace. They were actually getting somewhere here and she didn't want to ruin that by changing the subject.
“What's... your policy?”
“Time Lord society was incredibly stuffy about romance and marriage and everything related to those subjects,” he said. It seemed a lot easier for him to talk about his people now - maybe it was related to seeing Koschei again and losing him. “I'm open to suggestions.”
“I'm going to say 'no' on the kissing other people issue,” Rose said, watching him carefully. He let out a tiny breath of relief, which was... good to know. “But considering how much of a delicate hothouse flower you are-”
“I am not!”
“I tend to believe that you were kissed rather than kissing,” Rose said.
“Ah. Well. The first time,” he said.
“There was a second time?” Rose asked, not quite able to push back her indignation.
“Sort of,” he said. “Not really. It depends on your philosophical beliefs.”
Rose opened her mouth and then gave the Doctor a considering look. She paused for a moment, giving him a good long stare. He just looked placidly back and whatever it was, it certainly wasn't something that he was feeling guilty about - he'd looked more guilty about the kiss that he'd said that Astrid had initiated.
“You know what,” she said, thoughtfully. “I don't want to know.”
“Are you sure about that?” And that was genuine curiosity there, which told her all that she needed to - maybe he'd kissed Astrid while she lay there dying or something equally heroic and she couldn't... she couldn't fault him for that. She might have done the same herself, in a similar situation or, say, with someone like Jack, who had fought so hard for all of them.
“Dead sure,” she said. “Let's just say that, from now on, there'll be no intentional kissing of other people.”
“Deal!” the Doctor said cheerfully, leaning forward to seal their arrangement with another soft, quick kiss. “It's good to clear things like that up. You didn't happen to... um...”
He trailed off and gave her an imploring look, his eyes wide and sad.
“I didn't,” Rose said, taking pity on him. He was worse at this than any other man she'd ever been with in a relationship. It was even sort of endearing, in a pathetic way. “For such an arrogant man, you're very insecure.”
“I'm not arrogant, just extremely good at a wide range of subjects,” the Doctor protested. “It's not arrogance if it's earned.”
Rose opened her mouth to tease him and ended up surprising herself when she yawned instead. It was loud and wide, popping her jaw a bit.
“Ah, your recovery period has been triggered,” the Doctor said, reaching up and stroking her hair - it was loose around her shoulders now, though she didn't remember when it had fallen down. He ran his fingers all the way through, several times, gently working out some small tangles. “You'll probably sleep now for a few hours and, when you wake, you'll be well enough to walk. Though I wouldn't recommend running.”
“I don't feel tired,” she told him and it was true - her head felt a bit fuzzy, but she wasn't sleepy. “And I want to talk to you about... very important things, Doctor.”
“I know,” he said, leaning over. She felt the cool brush of his lips on her forehead and she smiled without even really thinking about it, comforted by his touch. “Rest now, so that we can do that later.”
Rose squinted at him - he was looking fairly blurry now and she started to blink to clear her eyes.
When she opened her eyes again, the Doctor was gone. So, for that matter, was her dress - at least, the bit over her stomach that had been ripped and bloody had been very carefully cut off, so that her dress had become more a shirt and skirt. Rose reached down and shook out the skirt, watching some black flecks fall out and land on the smooth floor of the medical bay.
Before today, she hadn't really spent much time in this room - once, back in her first year on the TARDIS, Jack's arm had gotten sliced up after flirting with what had looked like a dinosaur. She'd hopped up over onto the counter and watched from there as the Doctor had casually run something over Jack's cut and declared him 'better', but she'd seen Jack wincing later. That was the only time she'd been in here before and she'd been distracted by Jack's joking around with her, so she hadn't really studied the room. It was larger than any doctor's office that she'd ever visited on Earth - not that she'd seen many - and while the simple white floor might have been at home in one of those doctors' offices, the green and golden bulges in the walls decidedly would not. There was the cushioned table in the center of the room, which had been much more comfortable that she would have guessed, stools of various heights on one side of the room and hundreds of different drawers built into the wall, of all sort of sizes and shapes.
Rose very slowly levered herself to the side and tried to ease herself to the ground, letting out a sigh of relief when her legs were willing to hold her up. She still felt a bit weak, but she wasn't going to fall over.
The cold temperature of the floor made her realize that her shoes had also been removed. She wiggled her toes and was thrilled to see and feel them respond. She glanced around but didn't see any sign of her missing footwear. Well, that was probably for the best. She'd need to change for dinner anyway, so she might as well go do that now.
She rested one hand on the wall as she walked, feeling supported not just physically, but emotionally. She could feel the hum of the ship through her fingertips and the rough texture of the walls helped her remember all over again that the Doctor's ship was alive. It was more than just a ship, it was a friend.
The way down to the wardrobe room was much shorter than it should be from where she'd started, so Rose breathed a soft 'thank you' to the TARDIS. Finding a comfortable set of clothes was also easy - right near the front of the room was a soft, knee-length skirt in black, with a cushy red top hanging up next to it. The top itself was supported, so she wouldn't even need to struggle with a bra which might, she had to admit, be beyond her at the moment. The clothes slipped on easily, with no fastenings to worry about and, in a small cubby, she saw a pair of dark slippers that looked close to perfect at the moment.
It had taken her over half an hour to get dressed, by her own guess. It wasn't hard to move, but everything just seemed to take so much longer than normal. It was a bit like being really, really sick, but without feeling nauseous or in pain.
“Ah, I hoped you'd found your way down here.”
Rose turned around and the Doctor was standing in the doorway - he was wearing a blue suit now, one that she'd never seen before.
“When did you get a new suit?” she asked.
“Do you like it?” he asked, bounding up to her, all boyish enthusiasm. Rose bit her lip and slowly looked him over - the color didn't match him as well as the brown one, but... well, it was the Doctor and he'd probably look good in anything. The suit was fitted very well and she had only barely resisted the urge to ask him to turn around so that she could get a rear view.
“It'll do.” She shrugged, a teasing smile on her face.
“Is that all?” he asked.
In answer, Rose reached out toward the sharp lapels of his new suit and tugged him down toward her, claiming his mouth. Like all of their kisses, it was still relatively chaste, yet her heart thrummed in her chest. She dared to lick her tongue along the boundary of his mouth and his lips parted obediently. She pressed closer, her body humming everywhere that it touched his. She could feel one of his hands spread out on her back, holding her closer yet and his other hand cupped the back of her neck. His own tongue had just started to respond when a loud cough startled both of them.
“Took you long enough,” the man - presumably Mr. Copper - said. It was the older man that she remembered seeing on the bridge before the Doctor had taken her down to the TARDIS. “That's the third time I've tried to get your attention.”
“I'm sorry,” Rose said. She pulled away from the Doctor a bit and smiled at Mr. Copper. “It's lovely to properly meet you. I'm Rose Tyler.”
“What a beautiful name,” Mr. Copper said. “I'm Beatifimus Copper, lately of Sto. I believe that your Doctor said that you're from my new home, Earth?”
“I was born there,” Rose said. “But my home is here on the TARDIS.”
“Now, I know that the Doctor said that word earlier, but what exactly is it?” Mr. Copper asked, blinking. Rose glanced over at the Doctor, biting her lip hopefully. He waved her on, a soft smile on his face.
“That's the name of the Doctor's ship,” she said. “T-A-R-D-I-S. It stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.”
“Did you say time?” Mr. Copper asked. “Time Lord isn't just a title?”
“Isn't just a what?” the Doctor squawked. “Of course, it isn't just a title. I travel in time and space. What did you think that 'Time Lord' meant?”
“Oh, I just assumed that it was one of those nonsense titles that nobility gave themselves,” Mr. Copper said, vaguely. Rose didn't bother to hide her giggles. The Doctor glared at her and she laughed harder. “I'm sorry for assuming that.”
“Don't worry about it,” Rose said, once she'd gotten herself under control. “Now, sir, do you prefer to be called 'Mr. Copper'?”
“Oh my vot, I don't know...” the man paused, looking thoughtful. Rose wrinkled her nose - had he really said 'vot'? She'd have to ask the Doctor about that later, when they had more time. “My sister used to call me Beatty. I rather miss it.”
“Well, Beatty, the Doctor and I were planning to be going to a friend's for dinner - if the Doctor hasn't already invited you, I am,” Rose said, reaching up to fiddle with an earring, only to notice that she hadn't put any on. She changed the gesture into one of tucking her hair behind her ear and tried to figure out exactly when she'd lost her earrings. The Doctor must have taken them out while she'd been asleep.
“I'm looking forward to a genuine Christmas dinner very much,” Beatty said. “It's all quite exciting for me! I love travelling and the Doctor saved me from... from quite an awful fate.”
“Yeah,” Rose said, turning back to the Doctor and placing her hand into his. “He does that a lot.”
The Doctor smiled at her and tugged on her hand, pulling her forward to share another tiny kiss, his nose brushing against hers when he leaned back again. “Shall we?” he asked, looking over at Beatty.
“Indeed!” Beatty laughed out loud. “Lead the way!”
As they walked toward the exit, Rose tilted her head toward the Doctor and lowered her voice, “How close are we to Martha's?”
“Just outside her door,” he said, smugly.
“Did you check?” Rose asked. “Because you said you were certain last time and we were in the middle of Hyde Park. Which, let me remind you, is not where Martha lives.”
“Yes, I looked outside and checked,” he said, his smugness fading slightly. Rose swung their hands once and he chuckled. When they reached the TARDIS door, the Doctor made a point of skipping forward, opening the door theatrically and ushering the two of them through it. Once they were out, he took Rose's hand again.
Rose looked at the neighborhood around them and let out a low whistle. Martha's folks had a properly-built house, with a wall and a gate and everything. Rose couldn't imagine what that must be like, to live in that sort of place, where you didn't have a neighbor living right against the wall next to you - Rose couldn't count the number of times she'd heard arguments through the walls of her mum's place or Mickey's. Or the memorable occasions when, at Mickey's, they'd shagged loudly enough to have earned his next-door neighbor banging on the wall to try to make them stop or quiet down.
The Doctor pressed the buzzer at the front door and a middle-aged lady, probably the same age as Mum was now, answered the door. She had to be Martha's mum or maybe an aunt - apart from skin color, they had some similar facial features. She had some lovely curly hair, too.
“Mrs. Jones!” the Doctor said, cheerfully. “Here I am!”
“Hmph,” the woman confirmed as Martha's mum said. “She wasn't expecting you to actually show up.”
“Oh,” the Doctor said, deflating. “She wasn't?”
“She hoped, though,” Mrs. Jones admitted. She looked over at Rose and Rose fought the urge to squirm under the woman's attention - the look on her face was oddly reminiscent of the women who would come into Henrik's and treat Rose like she didn't matter because she was just staff. “You must be Rose.”
She sounded rather like she was hoping that she was wrong.
“You're here!” came a squeal from inside. Martha popped out from around her mother and she pounced on the Doctor with a tight hug. He was laughing as he hugged her back. As soon as she released the Doctor, she wrapped herself around Rose. “I'm so glad you came,” she whispered in Rose's ear. “I'm just bursting with news.”
She pulled away and Rose finally got a good look at her - she was fairly glowing and she looked absolutely gorgeous. Her hair was down around her shoulders and she had on a simple and elegant black dress that showed off her truly enviable figure.
“Who's your friend?” Martha asked.
“Ah,” the Doctor said. “This is my good friend Beatifimus Copper, also known as Beatty. He was of great help for me in the latest Christmas disaster. Beatty, this is my dear friend Martha and her... very strong mother, Francine Jones.”
“That was about the replica of the Titanic that almost fell on London?” Martha asked, looking faintly jealous.
“You could tell that it was the Titanic from here?” he asked, bemused. “Well-spotted.”
“We guessed that you were involved in that,” Mrs. Jones said, but... she was a bit amused, too. “Martha assured us that you would save us all from death and destruction.”
“And so I did,” the Doctor said, pushing past her into the house. Mrs. Jones stared after him and Rose made sure to reach out to touch her arm reassuringly when she went inside, and Mrs. Jones rolled her eyes and then smiled reluctantly.
“Everyone here knows about the Doctor,” she said to Rose. “So, none of you have to be careful about what you say.”
“Thank you very much for having us,” Rose said, following Mrs. Jones into the room - in short order, she was introduced to Martha's father, Clive, her sister Tish, and her brother Leo.
They were short one place at the table, but Mrs. Jones soon sorted that out with an extra chair from the hallway and they were seated down at Mr. Copper's very first Christmas dinner - a fact that he pointed out to the table proudly, which helped start a discussion right off the bat.
And it gave Rose the chance to turn to the Doctor, who was sitting next to her, and mouth, “I love you,” to him. He smiled back at her, reaching out to briefly squeeze her hand under the table.
Then they turned back to their Christmas dinner and the Jones clan and a lot of laughter.
After the dinner, Martha tugged Rose off to the side. She seemed just about ready to explode.
"You said you had news," Rose said. "Did you not want to say it in front of the Doctor?"
Martha dimmed slightly. "Things with the Doctor are... still a bit odd," she said. "I mean, I like you, Rose, so much more than I was expecting to, but I'm not in the right place to tell him this. Not yet. Soon, I hope."
"What is it?" Rose asked.
"I've been seeing this bloke, ever since I came back," Martha said. Then she paused for a moment and shook her head. "Well, I actually met him before that, but it happened during that year that never happened, so he doesn't remember it. But I remembered him and how brave he was, so I looked him up. We've been going out since then and... he's asked me to marry him."
"That's wonderful," Rose asked. Martha looked off to the side, less enthusiastic than before. "Isn't it?"
"It is," she said. "And I've told him 'yes' but I wanted..."
"Wanted what?" Rose asked.
"To ask you how you knew... that the Doctor was the right bloke for you," Martha said. "You waited for years for him in that parallel world."
"But I didn't," Rose said. "I mean, yes, I waited over four years and then... I gave up. I dated another man and very nearly married him."
"You didn't, though," Martha said, looking down at her hands. Rose could see her ring, now, sparkling on her left hand. "What made you realize that... no matter what... the Doctor was the only man that you wanted?"
"Mark was a good man," Rose said. She smiled, a little wistfully. "Probably better than I deserved, especially at the time. I was so angry, Martha. For two years, I was furious at... at everything. At the universe for keeping us apart. At my father for saving me. At everyone who told me to give up on finding the Doctor ever again."
Rose hesitated and Martha reached down and grabbed her hands. Rose smiled slightly despite herself, glad that the Doctor had known such a good person while Rose had been gone.
"I was angry at the Doctor," Rose said, softly. "Because he didn't even try. He said it was impossible and I knew that meant that he wouldn't even try. I loved him so much and he... he couldn't say the words back. Not back then."
"But it's obvious how much he loves you," Martha said. "Long before I'd ever met you, I knew that much."
"I never doubted that he did," Rose said. "But I was a twenty-one year-old girl. It would have been nice to hear it."
"You were that young?" Martha asked, sounding half-way between dubious and horrified. Rose laughed.
"I was nineteen the first time that the Doctor kissed me," she said. She was glad that she could remember that now, however faint the memory still felt at times. "Of course, that was to save my life."
"Yeah," Martha said, with a snort. "The first time we met, he kissed me to fool a bunch of Judoon that were out for alien fugitives."
"He does a lot of kissing, this regeneration," Rose mused.
"I can't say that I objected," Martha said, with a guilty smile. "But that doesn't... that doesn't answer my question - how did you know that he was the right one?"
"Because, even when I hated him," Rose said, tightening her grip on Martha's hands. "Even when I was so mad at him that I could have gladly hit him over the head with one of his mallets, I still knew that I wanted to be with him. A miserable time with the Doctor - like one of the many times we got imprisoned in some dank cell - was still more memorable and enjoyable than anything I ever did with anyone else. Sometimes... most of the time... I feel like my life didn't really begin until he reached out and took my hand in his. Since then, the TARDIS has become my home and his life... it's not everything I ever wanted. It's more. It's everything that I never even tried dreaming that I could have. If you're asking how I knew he was the right man because you want to know if your... what's his name?"
"Tom," Martha whispered.
"Because you want to know if your Tom is the 'right' man for you, I don't think I can answer that," Rose said. "I don't even know if I believe that it's true that there is a single right person. I know that the Doctor makes my heart beat faster, but other men have done that. The Doctor makes life enjoyable, but other men have done that, too. I don't know. I look at him and... I can imagine spending the rest of my life with him and it doesn't matter if we're chasing aliens or travelling to distant planets or just... lying on the grass having a laugh. If it's with him, then I'm going to love it. So, I suppose that I'd ask you that - even when everything is going horribly, do you still want to be with him?"
Martha looked up at Rose, a glorious smile blooming on her face.
"Yes," she said, with deep certainty. "If the whole world had gone to hell, I would want him by my side."
"Then that's your answer," Rose said. "Someone that you still want to be with in the worst times... and who feels the same way about you... that's a person worth hanging onto - no matter what."
Rose looked down at their clasped hands - Martha with her ring on her finger and Rose with her bracelet around her wrist. Having a visible reminder of another person's love was... comforting, Rose had to admit.
"Thank you," Martha said, softly.
"You're welcome," Rose said. "Just remember to invite us to the wedding."
Martha laughed and Rose joined her. Then, they made their way back to the main group. Rose caught the Doctor's eye and he hurried over to her.
"Nothing's wrong, I trust," he said, looking slightly worried.
"Nothing's wrong," Rose reassured him and then she impulsively hugged him. She buried her head against his shoulder, inhaling deeply, just trying to capture this moment with him. When she lifted her head again, a flash of motion caught her eye - out the window, on the street, there was the blonde woman from before all this had started, the one that had warned her. She slowly placed a finger over her lips, smiled, and then turned and walked down the street, out of sight. Rose frowned slightly, but she'd be in no condition to run after the woman like this... and the Doctor would tell her not to muck about with timelines, so there wasn't much she could do right now.
So, she forced herself to let it go for the moment and turned back to the Doctor with a smile.
After all, the woman had promised that they would meet again.
Sometime in Rose's future.
~The End~
Continue on to A Most Noble Undertaking