Fic: True Love's Gifts (12/13) 10.5/Rose PG
The Eleventh Day of Christmas
The white envelope had been sitting on her desk when she’d arrived at work that morning. She noticed it as she was hanging her coat on the back of her office door and made a mental note to ask Jake just when he and the Doctor had become such great mates. She sat down at her desk and turned on her computer, then picked up the envelope. These past ten days had been a whirlwind of fun with the Doctor and, though she was becoming a bit exhausted with all the activity, she also felt a bit sad that tomorrow would be the last day of this amazing Christmas the Doctor had planned for her. She ran her fingers over the messy scrawl of her name on the outside of the envelope before turning it over to open it and remove the note from inside.
On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, the Doctor gave to me: an evening with the London Philharmonic
(Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony is on the program tonight - it seemed appropriate to me. I’ll pick you up at your house at 7.00)
Rose chuckled as she returned the note to the envelope. She hoped the Doctor could control his fidgeting better at the symphony than he could at the ballet, but she wasn’t holding her breath. She tucked the envelope into her purse and turned to her computer to log in. As her calendar for the day popped onto the screen, she groaned at the four different case status meetings and thought to herself that the workday couldn’t end soon enough.
***
The concert had been fantastic, and the Doctor had been completely and utterly enthralled. Not surprisingly, he’d traveled to 18th century Vienna and knew enough about Mozart and the Jupiter Symphony to have written the program notes himself. Rose had spent the entirety of the concert tucked under his arm with her head resting on his shoulder as he whispered to her facts and trivia about the composer.
It had been an absolutely delightful evening, so when the Doctor had suggested dessert and a nightcap at the restaurant he’d taken her to on their very first date together in this universe, she’d been all too happy to agree. The Doctor’s jovial mood had seemed to wane a bit, though, as he’d driven them to the restaurant. And now, sitting side by side at a small table in the back corner of the restaurant, he was silent. It was still a comfortable silence, but such a dramatic turn from his cheeriness of only thirty minutes previous that Rose wondered if something was wrong.
She took a sip of her wine, using the motion as an excuse to survey the Doctor. He was slouched a bit in his chair, staring at a spot on the floor about six inches past his feet, his expression pensive. His hands were jammed into his pockets and she could hear loose change and his keys and who knew what else jangling as he apparently was fidgeting.
She set her wine glass down and gently rested her hand on his forearm to still his fidgety motion.
“Is everything alright?” she asked quietly.
He lifted his eyes to meet hers and smiled warmly. “Everything’s wonderful, Rose. Truly. But I…. I mean, I wanted to….”
He sighed and sat up a bit straighter in his chair, taking his right hand out of his trouser pocket and riffling it through his hair before bringing it to rest on the back of his neck. Rose raised her eyebrows slightly; that behavior always meant that he had something on his mind.
She rubbed her hand reassuringly up and down his forearm, hoping to calm him. “What is it?”
He sighed again and brought his hand down from the back of his neck to cover hers where it rested on his forearm.
“I actually have one more gift that I’d like to give you tonight.” He spoke very quietly, and his voice was pitched a bit higher than normal. He sounded nervous and Rose had to bite back the giggle that wanted to escape from her body at the thought of her brilliant and self-confident Doctor being nervous about anything.
“Two gifts in one night?” she said with a grin, “I’m quite the lucky girl.”
“Not half so lucky as me,” the Doctor said so quietly that Rose almost missed it. Before she could ask what he meant, he spoke again, more loudly, as he looked her directly in the eyes. “Hold out your hand, Rose.”
His expression had become somber and deadly serious, and Rose felt that something significant was about to happen. Holding his gaze, she removed her hand from his forearm and turned it so her palm was facing up. The Doctor removed his left hand from his pocket and placed something small and soft in her hand. They sat in silence for a moment, holding each other’s gaze and breathing deeply. Rose closed her hand around the object and identified as something velvet.
“Open it, please, Rose,” the Doctor whispered a little hoarsely.
Rose looked down at the black velvet pouch in her hand. She felt her breath hitch as an idea came to the forefront of her mind and it was with trembling fingers that she opened the drawstring and tipped the bag over, her left hand waiting to catch the object inside.
She gasped as the stunning platinum and diamond ring tumbled into her palm, and she felt tears instantly well in her eyes. She struggled for something to say, but could only articulate a weak “Oh my gosh” and “It’s beautiful”.
She looked back up at the Doctor and noted that his eyes seemed brighter than usual as well. He took the ring from her hand and held it up to her.
“I told you on our very first day together that I could spend the rest of my life with you, Rose Tyler. Now I’m asking you properly, will you spend the rest of your life with me? ”
“Doctor, I-“ Rose began, before her throat went dry and she had to stop to collect her emotions. The Doctor seemed to take her hesitation the wrong way, because he launched into a vintage ramble.
“We don’t have to get married right away. I know we’re still sorting things out between us, but I’ve known for ages that I want this. I bought the ring weeks ago and have just been waiting for the right moment. And then you said the other night that you were ready. But if you’re not, it’s okay. I’ll wait. Goodness knows you had to wait long enough for me, so it’s perfectly reasonable that-“
“Yes!” Rose finally interrupted, with a laugh and a grin. “Just shut up, because, yes, I want nothing more than to marry you.”
The Doctor closed his mouth with an audible click of his teeth and broke into a wide grin.
“That’s fantastic,” he said. Gesturing to her left ring finger with his hand, he asked, “May I?”
“I think you’d better,” Rose replied with a giddy laugh. As he placed the ring on her finger, she leaned in and gave him a long kiss, trying to express her gratitude and love in that simple motion. As she sat back, she held her left hand up to her face, trying to examine the ring more closely in the restaurant’s dim lighting.
“The band is engraved,” she observed.
“Yes,” the Doctor replied quietly.
“It looks a bit familiar,” Rose continued, as she studied the markings more closely. She looked back up to the Doctor as the thoughts fell into place, and she spoke quietly, “It’s your language, isn’t it? From your planet?”
The Doctor gave a small nod. “Yes, it’s Gallifreyan. The jeweler thought I was mad when I gave him such a specific design and told him I wanted it on the outside of the band, but he did the engraving anyway.”
“It’s beautiful,” Rose said as she turned her hand to try to catch more of the ambient lighting. “What does it say?”
“Mind you, Time Lords on the whole didn’t go for the whole romance idea, but we did have an expression of devotion for those we chose to join our lives with. That’s what I had engraved. It says, roughly, ‘Bonded to you through all time and space’. I figure I can’t give you the space part anymore, but I can give you the time.”
“ ‘S gorgeous,” Rose sniffled, as the tears feel down her cheeks. “Thank you.”
“You’re very, very welcome,” the Doctor replied quietly as he pulled Rose to him for a lingering kiss. Rose kissed him back with all the emotion she could muster until a thought occurred to her that made her giggle. The Doctor pulled away and looked at her quizzically.
“What is it?”
Rose wiped the tears from her cheeks and smiled broadly. “My mum is going to have a field day planning the society event of the year for us. She’s gonna drive you crazy.”
The Doctor gave a dramatic shudder before smiling back at Rose. “I’ll endure it; you’re more than worth it.”
Rose scooted her chair closer to the Doctor and leaned her head on his shoulder. The Doctor wrapped his arm around her shoulder as she resumed examining the ring now gracing her left hand.
“I love you, Rose,” the Doctor whispered in her ear.
“Love you, too,” Rose replied.
The white envelope had been sitting on her desk when she’d arrived at work that morning. She noticed it as she was hanging her coat on the back of her office door and made a mental note to ask Jake just when he and the Doctor had become such great mates. She sat down at her desk and turned on her computer, then picked up the envelope. These past ten days had been a whirlwind of fun with the Doctor and, though she was becoming a bit exhausted with all the activity, she also felt a bit sad that tomorrow would be the last day of this amazing Christmas the Doctor had planned for her. She ran her fingers over the messy scrawl of her name on the outside of the envelope before turning it over to open it and remove the note from inside.
On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, the Doctor gave to me: an evening with the London Philharmonic
(Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony is on the program tonight - it seemed appropriate to me. I’ll pick you up at your house at 7.00)
Rose chuckled as she returned the note to the envelope. She hoped the Doctor could control his fidgeting better at the symphony than he could at the ballet, but she wasn’t holding her breath. She tucked the envelope into her purse and turned to her computer to log in. As her calendar for the day popped onto the screen, she groaned at the four different case status meetings and thought to herself that the workday couldn’t end soon enough.
***
The concert had been fantastic, and the Doctor had been completely and utterly enthralled. Not surprisingly, he’d traveled to 18th century Vienna and knew enough about Mozart and the Jupiter Symphony to have written the program notes himself. Rose had spent the entirety of the concert tucked under his arm with her head resting on his shoulder as he whispered to her facts and trivia about the composer.
It had been an absolutely delightful evening, so when the Doctor had suggested dessert and a nightcap at the restaurant he’d taken her to on their very first date together in this universe, she’d been all too happy to agree. The Doctor’s jovial mood had seemed to wane a bit, though, as he’d driven them to the restaurant. And now, sitting side by side at a small table in the back corner of the restaurant, he was silent. It was still a comfortable silence, but such a dramatic turn from his cheeriness of only thirty minutes previous that Rose wondered if something was wrong.
She took a sip of her wine, using the motion as an excuse to survey the Doctor. He was slouched a bit in his chair, staring at a spot on the floor about six inches past his feet, his expression pensive. His hands were jammed into his pockets and she could hear loose change and his keys and who knew what else jangling as he apparently was fidgeting.
She set her wine glass down and gently rested her hand on his forearm to still his fidgety motion.
“Is everything alright?” she asked quietly.
He lifted his eyes to meet hers and smiled warmly. “Everything’s wonderful, Rose. Truly. But I…. I mean, I wanted to….”
He sighed and sat up a bit straighter in his chair, taking his right hand out of his trouser pocket and riffling it through his hair before bringing it to rest on the back of his neck. Rose raised her eyebrows slightly; that behavior always meant that he had something on his mind.
She rubbed her hand reassuringly up and down his forearm, hoping to calm him. “What is it?”
He sighed again and brought his hand down from the back of his neck to cover hers where it rested on his forearm.
“I actually have one more gift that I’d like to give you tonight.” He spoke very quietly, and his voice was pitched a bit higher than normal. He sounded nervous and Rose had to bite back the giggle that wanted to escape from her body at the thought of her brilliant and self-confident Doctor being nervous about anything.
“Two gifts in one night?” she said with a grin, “I’m quite the lucky girl.”
“Not half so lucky as me,” the Doctor said so quietly that Rose almost missed it. Before she could ask what he meant, he spoke again, more loudly, as he looked her directly in the eyes. “Hold out your hand, Rose.”
His expression had become somber and deadly serious, and Rose felt that something significant was about to happen. Holding his gaze, she removed her hand from his forearm and turned it so her palm was facing up. The Doctor removed his left hand from his pocket and placed something small and soft in her hand. They sat in silence for a moment, holding each other’s gaze and breathing deeply. Rose closed her hand around the object and identified as something velvet.
“Open it, please, Rose,” the Doctor whispered a little hoarsely.
Rose looked down at the black velvet pouch in her hand. She felt her breath hitch as an idea came to the forefront of her mind and it was with trembling fingers that she opened the drawstring and tipped the bag over, her left hand waiting to catch the object inside.
She gasped as the stunning platinum and diamond ring tumbled into her palm, and she felt tears instantly well in her eyes. She struggled for something to say, but could only articulate a weak “Oh my gosh” and “It’s beautiful”.
She looked back up at the Doctor and noted that his eyes seemed brighter than usual as well. He took the ring from her hand and held it up to her.
“I told you on our very first day together that I could spend the rest of my life with you, Rose Tyler. Now I’m asking you properly, will you spend the rest of your life with me? ”
“Doctor, I-“ Rose began, before her throat went dry and she had to stop to collect her emotions. The Doctor seemed to take her hesitation the wrong way, because he launched into a vintage ramble.
“We don’t have to get married right away. I know we’re still sorting things out between us, but I’ve known for ages that I want this. I bought the ring weeks ago and have just been waiting for the right moment. And then you said the other night that you were ready. But if you’re not, it’s okay. I’ll wait. Goodness knows you had to wait long enough for me, so it’s perfectly reasonable that-“
“Yes!” Rose finally interrupted, with a laugh and a grin. “Just shut up, because, yes, I want nothing more than to marry you.”
The Doctor closed his mouth with an audible click of his teeth and broke into a wide grin.
“That’s fantastic,” he said. Gesturing to her left ring finger with his hand, he asked, “May I?”
“I think you’d better,” Rose replied with a giddy laugh. As he placed the ring on her finger, she leaned in and gave him a long kiss, trying to express her gratitude and love in that simple motion. As she sat back, she held her left hand up to her face, trying to examine the ring more closely in the restaurant’s dim lighting.
“The band is engraved,” she observed.
“Yes,” the Doctor replied quietly.
“It looks a bit familiar,” Rose continued, as she studied the markings more closely. She looked back up to the Doctor as the thoughts fell into place, and she spoke quietly, “It’s your language, isn’t it? From your planet?”
The Doctor gave a small nod. “Yes, it’s Gallifreyan. The jeweler thought I was mad when I gave him such a specific design and told him I wanted it on the outside of the band, but he did the engraving anyway.”
“It’s beautiful,” Rose said as she turned her hand to try to catch more of the ambient lighting. “What does it say?”
“Mind you, Time Lords on the whole didn’t go for the whole romance idea, but we did have an expression of devotion for those we chose to join our lives with. That’s what I had engraved. It says, roughly, ‘Bonded to you through all time and space’. I figure I can’t give you the space part anymore, but I can give you the time.”
“ ‘S gorgeous,” Rose sniffled, as the tears feel down her cheeks. “Thank you.”
“You’re very, very welcome,” the Doctor replied quietly as he pulled Rose to him for a lingering kiss. Rose kissed him back with all the emotion she could muster until a thought occurred to her that made her giggle. The Doctor pulled away and looked at her quizzically.
“What is it?”
Rose wiped the tears from her cheeks and smiled broadly. “My mum is going to have a field day planning the society event of the year for us. She’s gonna drive you crazy.”
The Doctor gave a dramatic shudder before smiling back at Rose. “I’ll endure it; you’re more than worth it.”
Rose scooted her chair closer to the Doctor and leaned her head on his shoulder. The Doctor wrapped his arm around her shoulder as she resumed examining the ring now gracing her left hand.
“I love you, Rose,” the Doctor whispered in her ear.
“Love you, too,” Rose replied.