Thoughts: Christmas Edition 2009 - Part III
Title: Thoughts: Christmas Edition 2009
Author: jiji_bean
Characters: Nine/Rose, Ten/Rose, Jack, Jackie, Mickey, and the Tardis of course!
Rating: PG
Time Line: Every Christmas that could have been (and maybe was...)
Summary: Contains 20 Christmas drabbles that I wrote last year. I plan on writing some for each day next week and wanted to revisit. You will find fluff, fun, humor, and a pinch of angst. Happy Holidays!
Card
“What are you writing Rose?” asked the Doctor, trying to appear as he didn’t care…when he did…very much so.
Rose was busy scribbling away in a card. Without bothering to look up, she mumbled into her chest, “A Christmas card…for Mickey.”
The Doctor felt trickles of jealousy seep from his pores. He shrugged it off.
“Oh? I guess it is time for your Christmas,” he stated, again, feigning disinterest.
At that, Rose looked up, a hint of hurt in her eyes. The Doctor’s hearts tightened and his lips became dry. He licked them, attempting to retain his mask of indifference.
“Weren’t we gonna celebrate Christmas, Doctor?” she asked softly, a pleading look in her eyes.
And at that, the Doctor felt his hearts melt for this very special human girl for whom he would do anything for.
Including, and especially, celebrating Christmas.
“Of course, I was just teasing you. Now, go get your coat, it’ll be snowing when we get there.” He smiled tenderly at his sweet companion.
Her grin having returned to her lips, she got up from the console chair and skipped down the hall to her room.
The Doctor’s eyes returned to the console chair after Rose disappeared at the end of the hallway. His eyebrows furrowed with curiosity when he saw another card under Mickey’s. Not being one to fight his curiosity, the Doctor checked to see if Rose was returning. When he was sure that she wasn’t, he made his way quickly to the chair, picking up the other card and tossing Mickey’s to the side for now.
Unlike Mickey’s card, this one was homemade. It was made of heavy watercolor paper and on top was a watercolor of the Tardis. It was a simple drawing, but the sight of it warmed his hearts. Opening it up, he saw Rose’s bubbly print: To my Doctor, thank you for the adventures, the hand holding and the running. Because of you, my life has changed for the better. You’ve made me better. Thank you. Merry Christmas! Love, Rose
It was a short message, but the words brought moisture to his eyes.
Hearing her footsteps as she made her back to the room, he quickly shoved the card back into place, being as careful as he could be in the process, and jumped off the seat.
“Ready!” Carrying a small bundle of gifts in her arms, Rose stopped by the chair and grabbed the cards, placing them in between the boxes.
The Doctor lowered a level, signaling that they were at the Powell Estate.
“Go ahead, I just need to grab something,” he told her.
Rose smiled and made her way out of the Tardis.
The Doctor, still physically shaken from her words, knelt under the console and removed a small gift and card with Rose written in his elegant script on top. Placing them in his pockets, he walked down the ramp to the Tardis doors, smiling and humming to himself.
Eggnog
“Come on Rose! Drink some!” yelled the Doctor happily from his slouching position on his favorite blue armchair. He was sloshing eggnog in his tall glass at her.
Oh no, thought Rose.
“Doctor, what is in that eggnog?”
He giggled (did the Doctor just giggle? thought Rose, dubiously), “Rum. Rum rum rumity rum.”
Oh boy.
“I think I’ll go make you some coffee…” she grabbed the glass from his clutch and made to leave the room, but the Doctor’s hand on her arm stopped her. Turning back, she saw that his eyes were red with tiredness and….well, slight drunkenness.
“I didn’t mean…to drink so much,” he chuckled.
Rose’s eyes softened, “I know Doctor, I’m gonna go get you that coffee, okay?”
When he didn’t let go of her, she looked back down into his eyes.
“No one takes care of me like you do Rose,” he said it matter-of-factly, no doubt in his eyes.
She smiled at him and raised her hand to ruffle his hair.
“I’ll go get you that coffee.”
But before she left the room, she turned back, “Oh, and Doctor?”
He grumbled something in reply.
Hiding her laughter, she continued, “No one takes care of me like you do too.”
Before he could reply, she left, thinking to herself, I am so taking photos of him for Christmas cards next year.
Candy
“Look at what my mum gave us,” exclaimed Rose as she sat next to the Doctor on the couch in her mum’s flat.
The Doctor turned from the television to look at what Rose had in her hand, a bag of chocolate candies.
“Are you sure they’re for me? I don’t want to get slapped again,” he rubbed his cheek at the memory.
“Oi, I heard that, and I will slap you if I need to!” yelled Jackie from the back bedroom.
The Doctor hunched lower on the couch, as if that would save him from the wrath of Jackie Tyler.
Rose laughed, linking arms with the Doctor and removing a piece of candy from the bag, handing it to him.
The Doctor took it, smiling back at her and let his head fall gently on her shoulder.
“Merry Christmas, Rose.”
Rose looked down at his disheveled head and back to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on the screen. Smiling contentedly, she whispered, “Merry Christmas, Doctor.”
Lights
Where is that human, thought the Doctor as he walked down the hall to the console room. His heavy boots were thumping loudly on floor as he did so.
When he finally did reach the room, he stopped suddenly and stood in awe at the sight before him. Rose was reaching up, draping a string of Christmas lights from one of the standing pieces of coral when she turned back and saw him.
“It was supposed to be a surprise,” she said quickly, making her way down the step ladder. “What do you think?”
The Doctor looked around his ship, his precious and only home. It was covered in twinkling lights of many colors. It resembled the night sky on so many planets, the sparkling stars winking at him each time.
He had never thought too much of Christmas, at least not until he met one Rose Tyler.
“It’s…fantastic,” there were no other words to express the warmth that filled his hearts.
Rose blushed profusely. She turned to pick up the ladder and was about to walk past the Doctor to return it to its hiding place when the Doctor’s voice stopped her.
“Why…why did you do this?” he wasn’t angry, he was trying to understand the gesture.
She looked up to him. His crystal blue eyes were staring so intently at her that she thought her heart could stop if she stared into them for too long.
“I don’t know when the last time you celebrated Christmas was…I wanted our first one together to be special,” she felt the words were silly once they had spilled out between them. Rose looked down at her hands, willing them to stop trembling.
The Doctor reached for her and embraced her tightly. The ladder clanged as it hit the grating.
Rose hugged the Doctor, his leather jacket smelling of his warmth and of something else. Something else entirely.
The Doctor buried himself in her hair and neck, feeling her delicate frame underneath his grasp.
“Thank you,” he whispered in her ear.
Rose smiled, clutching him tighter and enjoying the shiver that ran throughout her body.
Wrapping
Jack was busy wrapping Rose’s gift when the Doctor barged into his room on the Tardis.
“Jack, what do you think this is?” he held up something that looked like a screw, but had wires attached at the end.
Surprised at being asked anything in a cordial manner from the Doctor, he felt his tongue grow two sizes too big, but managed to express his confusion in the matter in the form of a shrug.
The Doctor nodded and was on his way out when he finally took notice of what Jack was doing.
“What’s that then?” he asked, pointing at the small box.
Jack smiled, “It’s Rosie’s Christmas gift.”
The Doctor paled. “Gift?”
He couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Please tell me you got her a Christmas gift Doctor…its tomorrow!”
The Doctor sat on Jack’s bed (oh, the images that went through his head!), the item in his hand long since forgotten.
“I…I couldn’t find anything good enough and I kept putting it off…”
He sighed and looked down at Jack’s gift.
“What did you get her?” he asked, a bit snarky.
Jack smiled smugly, “A ring.”
He saw as the Doctor’s eyes practically bulged out of his head.
Before he could have a chance to blow up, Jack laughed, “Whoa Doctor, it’s a friendship ring, okay? It’s this Celtic knot thing that I found on Earth when we were visiting last.”
Jack saw as the Doctor exhaled the breath he probably didn’t know he was holding.
The Doctor stood up, ready to make his exit, mumbling something about making a pit stop.
“I know what you could give her,” stated Jack, letting the sentence trail suggestively as he wiggled his eyebrows at him.
All Jack saw was the screw-thing heading for his forehead as the Doctor left the room.
Part IV