Fic: Taking the Plunge 3/?
Title: Taking the Plunge
Author: Shen
Characters: Rose, Ten, Donna, Jack, Owen, Ianto, Gwen, Tosh
Rating: PG
Genre: Fluff, humor
Setting/Spoilers: No spoilers whatsoever. Part of my Peril-verse ( LJ). 'Verse recap here. Post-reunion fic. You SHOULD be alright if you're not caught up, though. :)
Teaser: Trouble in paradise! The Doctor's really done it now, and his friends suggest a rather drastic solution: Marriage?!
Chapter 1 Chapter 2
Chapter 3: Popping the Question
Rose returned to the Hub at Gwen's side, laughing at a story that involved Jack, tiger-like aliens, and the largest ball of catnip-laced yarn she'd ever seen. All in all, Rose was feeling better about things. A quick sniffle in the pub water closet left her feeling calmer and cleansed, and a cheering series of stories from her friends took her mind off the situation. She was a big girl. An embarrassing and uncomfortable situation like the one that occurred earlier could be gotten over, particularly when there was lager to wash the taste of blue alien out of her mouth. A few lagers.
So she might have been slightly buzzed, but who could blame her? It's not like she made a habit of using alcohol as a coping mechanism, and at her age, that practically made her a saint. Or something. The point was, she'd left the Doctor so she wouldn't say something she didn't mean in her slightly traumatised state. Now she had cooled off enough to admit that the whole thing was an unfortunate accident; and she had to thank him for catching her before she went any farther with... with... whatever her name was; but he'd best never let anything like that happen again. (Making out with aliens before she knew their names... that's one she couldn't use on Jack for their next round of Never Have I Ever.) They could make up. Maybe have tipsy makeup sex. Their mental link always behaved interestingly under the influence of chemicals...
However, her relaxed laughter ceased when she noticed how Owen, Jack, the Doctor, and Donna were looking at her. Then, as they caught her catching them staring, they spun back to computer screens and paper files and conversations with each other.
Right, that wasn't suspicious.
A shared look with Gwen told Rose that she didn't know what was up either. Perhaps it was best to act normal until they could figure it out. With this crowd, it could be anything from bodysnatching aliens to the prelude to a prank.
“Donna, good to see ya! 'M so sorry we were late; I didn't even realize until I saw the date on a newspaper topside. Have a good visit?” she asked genially and relatively clearly, walking up to the older woman.
“Tardiness wasn't your fault, blondie; don't worry about it. It's this lump and his driving,” she insisted with a thumb directed at the Doctor. “I'm surprised he can steer a go-kart on a closed track.”
“Hey!”
“And my visit was alright.” Donna smiled. Then, the Doctor stepped around her and grabbed both of Rose's hands. It was so sudden, Rose's fuzzy senses could barely track the movement. Still, she managed to focus on his face after a moment.
“Rose, I need to ask you something impo- Wait. Are you drunk?” He sniffed the air. “You are!”
“Just buzzed!” she countered defensively. Suddenly, the Doctor looked torn.
“You'd have to be, wouldn't you? My luck. You know, drinking is what got us into this mess. But if you're not very drunk, it's probably alright. You're a functional drunk. And you haven't had a lot. Hardly rat-arsed, or lashed, or steaming, or any of the other confusing euphemisms you lot have for the state. And ethanol loosens you up, but it doesn't change opinions. Actually, it makes you honest, so now might even be a better time to ask you! Important things are discussed over dinner and wine all the time! Things like this, even. So I think I will.” Through all of this, Rose stared at him with a furrowed brow, deeply confused. The bodysnatching theory had fallen away; only the proper Doctor could rant like that. But she had no idea what was going on. And now he was reaching into his jacket pocket.
“No!” Jack said, quite suddenly attached to the Doctor's arm. Rose stared at him as well, now convinced that everyone had gone off their rocker. Jack gave her his dazzling smile as he let go of the Doctor's arm and patted it gingerly.
“You can deal with that nonsense later, Doc. Rose deserves a nice time out after her day; take her to these coordinates.” Jack passed the Doctor a slip of paper, which he stared at suspiciously.
“I'm not familiar with these coordinates. And anyplace you have memorized like this worries me. What is it?”
“Trust me!”
Donna stepped up and added, “And I'll sit this one out. You two can pick me up after you work out your spat, thanks. I've seen enough drama on telly in my mum's house this week.”
~*~*~*~
A sobering shower and cup of tea later, the TARDIS was nearly at its destination, and Rose walked into the console room. The Doctor beamed when he saw her, drawing a small grin in return.
“Good timing! Let's see where the good captain's landed us this time, eh? Seemed to think it would be romantic.” He didn't understand it. Hours ago, he had been ambivalent at best to the idea of marriage, but now the thought of asking her made him excited and terrified at once. Not like it would matter if she said no; they would just continue as always. She wouldn't leave him over an embarrassing spa visit and an awkward question. Certainly not.
They walked outside, him almost quivering with nervous energy. After a moment, a green woman with webbed fingers, horns on her elbows, and a lot of leather walked up to them with a terrifying sort of smile. Not that she could help it, with all the rows of serrated teeth she had.
“Hello, and welcome to our colony! I'll help you arrange things for the duration of your stay. Will you need a starter kit? I see you aren't collared or leashed yet, Miss. Unless you'll need the collar, Sir? Who should I be speaking to?” The Doctor and Rose shared a moment of shocked silence. Then, he spoke.
“Um. I think we've landed in the wrong place; sorry! Must've been misdirected.” He mustered a smile by thinking about what he was going to do to Jack for this. A BDSM colony; really! Only he would have a place like that on his vortex manipulator speed-dial.
The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and started to drag her back to the TARDIS, but she turned to call out, “Maybe some other time!” He stopped and stared at her, agape. Looking supremely amused, she laughed at him and gave absolutely no indication of whether she was serious or not. Minx.
Unsure of his feelings on the subject, he avoided it by rolling his eyes and dragging her along again, drawing more titillated laughter. Just hearing it made him smile, once he'd turned his head so she couldn't see. The merry feeling rolled from her mind to his and back, and he took a moment to bask in her mental presence, even as he shut the door and put them back in the vortex. Lowered psychic barriers could only mean that she was no longer angry with him.
“So, where to, handsome?” Rose asked cheerily.
“Nowhere. I just decided.” He had spoken so suddenly that even he was surprised to find out about the resolution. So he elucidated, “This is our home and the progenitor of our deeper mental connection, part of each of us. She should hear this.” He punctuated the statement by caressing the console and looking into it, receiving a jubilant hum in response. When he looked back at his lover, however, he saw eyes 100% focused on him, revealing love and concern.
“What on earth have you been going on about, Doctor?” He got on bended knee. A static of shock and confusion fizzled from her mind to his.
“Rose Tyler, love of my hearts. I told you once that you could spend the rest of your life with me. I wonder if you would do me the honor of making that official. Will you marry me?” With a flourish, he pulled a small, velvet box from his pocket and revealed a ring. It looked like a white gold band, just thin enough to be called delicate, with a deep-set, dark blue ceylon sapphire as the focus. It was oval cut and nestled between two princess cut stones that looked like diamonds until one saw how they shimmered. They refracted light in a way altogether more intriguing than the Earth stone. Finally, just beside the smaller stones, before the band thinned, was a tiny symbol made up of interlocking circles and other rounded shapes, one on each side.
Rose gasped when she saw it.
“Oh,” she breathed. “That's... that's gorgeous! What's the symbol?”
“It's the insignia of my family's house, the House of Lungbarrow. The sapphire's from Earth, something of your planet to always have with you, but the symbol's Gallifreyan, like me,” he explained in a soft tone. He had no last name to give her, not that he was sure she'd take it if he did, but it would mean a lot to have her wear the insignia of his family.
“Have you been planning this?” She sounded just this side of incredulous. Perhaps Jack had been right when he said that the idea of him being this domestic seemed outrageous.
“Ah- no. Decided today, and I just had this ring made.”
“I was only gone for an hour and a half!”
“Might've made a trip to a jeweler and backtracked my timeline a bit. Wouldn't do to have you come back from lunch and find me gone. Then you really would have killed me, and Donna would have held me down.”
“But... you don't...” Rose said, voice high and a little lost.
“Rose Tyler, you've crossed the Void between dimensions without a ship; you've seen a real werewolf; and you can't believe this is happening? These 900-year-old knees can't take this grating much longer.”
“900 my arse; those knees are barely four years old,” she argued with a laugh. “Stand up.” He did, watching her face expectantly. He noted with some alarm that she wasn't exactly smiling.
“Before,” Rose started, and she didn't need to explain before what, “my greatest fear was being separated from you. I didn't think I could live after it. Now, I've been proven wrong; I know I can muddle on without you, even thrive professionally.” Oh dear. The Doctor was getting very, very nervous, and any trace of a smile had faded from his face. Then, gently, Rose grabbed either side of his face, pulled him close, and pushed her mind into his, flooding his senses with bright, consuming love. It was warmth and light and trust, and he almost forgot himself basking in it. However, his lover's quiet but conviction-laden voice pierced his comfortable haze.
“But I never, ever want to again.” She kissed him, hard, and he reoriented on the physical world.
“That's a yes, then?” he asked when they parted, deliriously happy.
“You great, gangly idiot, did you think I'd say no?” she chastised, eyes shining with the start of happy tears. She kissed him again quickly.
Then, she almost growled, “Anything to get you into that tux.” Their lips quickly glued together, only separating long enough for the Doctor to slip the ring onto her finger. He let her have a few moments to admire it and giggle happily while he sampled her neck, her cheek, her ear, before claiming her mouth again. Nails dug into his shoulder and scalp as he backed them into the hallway, towards their room.
Getting married, the still-coherent part of his brain thought, was probably worth it. The stress of asking, even when made worse by cruel verbal tricks as utilized by his now-fiancé, felt entirely justified by the feeling achieved by an affirmative reply to the request. Euphoric, he'd call it. And the aftermath was shaping up to be rather pleasurable, too...
Author: Shen
Characters: Rose, Ten, Donna, Jack, Owen, Ianto, Gwen, Tosh
Rating: PG
Genre: Fluff, humor
Setting/Spoilers: No spoilers whatsoever. Part of my Peril-verse ( LJ). 'Verse recap here. Post-reunion fic. You SHOULD be alright if you're not caught up, though. :)
Teaser: Trouble in paradise! The Doctor's really done it now, and his friends suggest a rather drastic solution: Marriage?!
Chapter 1 Chapter 2
Chapter 3: Popping the Question
Rose returned to the Hub at Gwen's side, laughing at a story that involved Jack, tiger-like aliens, and the largest ball of catnip-laced yarn she'd ever seen. All in all, Rose was feeling better about things. A quick sniffle in the pub water closet left her feeling calmer and cleansed, and a cheering series of stories from her friends took her mind off the situation. She was a big girl. An embarrassing and uncomfortable situation like the one that occurred earlier could be gotten over, particularly when there was lager to wash the taste of blue alien out of her mouth. A few lagers.
So she might have been slightly buzzed, but who could blame her? It's not like she made a habit of using alcohol as a coping mechanism, and at her age, that practically made her a saint. Or something. The point was, she'd left the Doctor so she wouldn't say something she didn't mean in her slightly traumatised state. Now she had cooled off enough to admit that the whole thing was an unfortunate accident; and she had to thank him for catching her before she went any farther with... with... whatever her name was; but he'd best never let anything like that happen again. (Making out with aliens before she knew their names... that's one she couldn't use on Jack for their next round of Never Have I Ever.) They could make up. Maybe have tipsy makeup sex. Their mental link always behaved interestingly under the influence of chemicals...
However, her relaxed laughter ceased when she noticed how Owen, Jack, the Doctor, and Donna were looking at her. Then, as they caught her catching them staring, they spun back to computer screens and paper files and conversations with each other.
Right, that wasn't suspicious.
A shared look with Gwen told Rose that she didn't know what was up either. Perhaps it was best to act normal until they could figure it out. With this crowd, it could be anything from bodysnatching aliens to the prelude to a prank.
“Donna, good to see ya! 'M so sorry we were late; I didn't even realize until I saw the date on a newspaper topside. Have a good visit?” she asked genially and relatively clearly, walking up to the older woman.
“Tardiness wasn't your fault, blondie; don't worry about it. It's this lump and his driving,” she insisted with a thumb directed at the Doctor. “I'm surprised he can steer a go-kart on a closed track.”
“Hey!”
“And my visit was alright.” Donna smiled. Then, the Doctor stepped around her and grabbed both of Rose's hands. It was so sudden, Rose's fuzzy senses could barely track the movement. Still, she managed to focus on his face after a moment.
“Rose, I need to ask you something impo- Wait. Are you drunk?” He sniffed the air. “You are!”
“Just buzzed!” she countered defensively. Suddenly, the Doctor looked torn.
“You'd have to be, wouldn't you? My luck. You know, drinking is what got us into this mess. But if you're not very drunk, it's probably alright. You're a functional drunk. And you haven't had a lot. Hardly rat-arsed, or lashed, or steaming, or any of the other confusing euphemisms you lot have for the state. And ethanol loosens you up, but it doesn't change opinions. Actually, it makes you honest, so now might even be a better time to ask you! Important things are discussed over dinner and wine all the time! Things like this, even. So I think I will.” Through all of this, Rose stared at him with a furrowed brow, deeply confused. The bodysnatching theory had fallen away; only the proper Doctor could rant like that. But she had no idea what was going on. And now he was reaching into his jacket pocket.
“No!” Jack said, quite suddenly attached to the Doctor's arm. Rose stared at him as well, now convinced that everyone had gone off their rocker. Jack gave her his dazzling smile as he let go of the Doctor's arm and patted it gingerly.
“You can deal with that nonsense later, Doc. Rose deserves a nice time out after her day; take her to these coordinates.” Jack passed the Doctor a slip of paper, which he stared at suspiciously.
“I'm not familiar with these coordinates. And anyplace you have memorized like this worries me. What is it?”
“Trust me!”
Donna stepped up and added, “And I'll sit this one out. You two can pick me up after you work out your spat, thanks. I've seen enough drama on telly in my mum's house this week.”
~*~*~*~
A sobering shower and cup of tea later, the TARDIS was nearly at its destination, and Rose walked into the console room. The Doctor beamed when he saw her, drawing a small grin in return.
“Good timing! Let's see where the good captain's landed us this time, eh? Seemed to think it would be romantic.” He didn't understand it. Hours ago, he had been ambivalent at best to the idea of marriage, but now the thought of asking her made him excited and terrified at once. Not like it would matter if she said no; they would just continue as always. She wouldn't leave him over an embarrassing spa visit and an awkward question. Certainly not.
They walked outside, him almost quivering with nervous energy. After a moment, a green woman with webbed fingers, horns on her elbows, and a lot of leather walked up to them with a terrifying sort of smile. Not that she could help it, with all the rows of serrated teeth she had.
“Hello, and welcome to our colony! I'll help you arrange things for the duration of your stay. Will you need a starter kit? I see you aren't collared or leashed yet, Miss. Unless you'll need the collar, Sir? Who should I be speaking to?” The Doctor and Rose shared a moment of shocked silence. Then, he spoke.
“Um. I think we've landed in the wrong place; sorry! Must've been misdirected.” He mustered a smile by thinking about what he was going to do to Jack for this. A BDSM colony; really! Only he would have a place like that on his vortex manipulator speed-dial.
The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and started to drag her back to the TARDIS, but she turned to call out, “Maybe some other time!” He stopped and stared at her, agape. Looking supremely amused, she laughed at him and gave absolutely no indication of whether she was serious or not. Minx.
Unsure of his feelings on the subject, he avoided it by rolling his eyes and dragging her along again, drawing more titillated laughter. Just hearing it made him smile, once he'd turned his head so she couldn't see. The merry feeling rolled from her mind to his and back, and he took a moment to bask in her mental presence, even as he shut the door and put them back in the vortex. Lowered psychic barriers could only mean that she was no longer angry with him.
“So, where to, handsome?” Rose asked cheerily.
“Nowhere. I just decided.” He had spoken so suddenly that even he was surprised to find out about the resolution. So he elucidated, “This is our home and the progenitor of our deeper mental connection, part of each of us. She should hear this.” He punctuated the statement by caressing the console and looking into it, receiving a jubilant hum in response. When he looked back at his lover, however, he saw eyes 100% focused on him, revealing love and concern.
“What on earth have you been going on about, Doctor?” He got on bended knee. A static of shock and confusion fizzled from her mind to his.
“Rose Tyler, love of my hearts. I told you once that you could spend the rest of your life with me. I wonder if you would do me the honor of making that official. Will you marry me?” With a flourish, he pulled a small, velvet box from his pocket and revealed a ring. It looked like a white gold band, just thin enough to be called delicate, with a deep-set, dark blue ceylon sapphire as the focus. It was oval cut and nestled between two princess cut stones that looked like diamonds until one saw how they shimmered. They refracted light in a way altogether more intriguing than the Earth stone. Finally, just beside the smaller stones, before the band thinned, was a tiny symbol made up of interlocking circles and other rounded shapes, one on each side.
Rose gasped when she saw it.
“Oh,” she breathed. “That's... that's gorgeous! What's the symbol?”
“It's the insignia of my family's house, the House of Lungbarrow. The sapphire's from Earth, something of your planet to always have with you, but the symbol's Gallifreyan, like me,” he explained in a soft tone. He had no last name to give her, not that he was sure she'd take it if he did, but it would mean a lot to have her wear the insignia of his family.
“Have you been planning this?” She sounded just this side of incredulous. Perhaps Jack had been right when he said that the idea of him being this domestic seemed outrageous.
“Ah- no. Decided today, and I just had this ring made.”
“I was only gone for an hour and a half!”
“Might've made a trip to a jeweler and backtracked my timeline a bit. Wouldn't do to have you come back from lunch and find me gone. Then you really would have killed me, and Donna would have held me down.”
“But... you don't...” Rose said, voice high and a little lost.
“Rose Tyler, you've crossed the Void between dimensions without a ship; you've seen a real werewolf; and you can't believe this is happening? These 900-year-old knees can't take this grating much longer.”
“900 my arse; those knees are barely four years old,” she argued with a laugh. “Stand up.” He did, watching her face expectantly. He noted with some alarm that she wasn't exactly smiling.
“Before,” Rose started, and she didn't need to explain before what, “my greatest fear was being separated from you. I didn't think I could live after it. Now, I've been proven wrong; I know I can muddle on without you, even thrive professionally.” Oh dear. The Doctor was getting very, very nervous, and any trace of a smile had faded from his face. Then, gently, Rose grabbed either side of his face, pulled him close, and pushed her mind into his, flooding his senses with bright, consuming love. It was warmth and light and trust, and he almost forgot himself basking in it. However, his lover's quiet but conviction-laden voice pierced his comfortable haze.
“But I never, ever want to again.” She kissed him, hard, and he reoriented on the physical world.
“That's a yes, then?” he asked when they parted, deliriously happy.
“You great, gangly idiot, did you think I'd say no?” she chastised, eyes shining with the start of happy tears. She kissed him again quickly.
Then, she almost growled, “Anything to get you into that tux.” Their lips quickly glued together, only separating long enough for the Doctor to slip the ring onto her finger. He let her have a few moments to admire it and giggle happily while he sampled her neck, her cheek, her ear, before claiming her mouth again. Nails dug into his shoulder and scalp as he backed them into the hallway, towards their room.
Getting married, the still-coherent part of his brain thought, was probably worth it. The stress of asking, even when made worse by cruel verbal tricks as utilized by his now-fiancé, felt entirely justified by the feeling achieved by an affirmative reply to the request. Euphoric, he'd call it. And the aftermath was shaping up to be rather pleasurable, too...