Title: Housekeeping
Author: Salimali
Rating: PG
Characters: TenII/Rose,
Disclaimer: I don't own DW or any of its affiliated characters, if I did, it would be Ten/Rose all the way
Spoilers: I assume you're all familiar with Journey's End by now.
Summary: TenII has a problem with hoarding junk
Author Notes: A little fic inspired by my foray into ebay last weekend. Several hours later my sons bedroom is clean and tidy and quite a few pounds is to be made on ebay. Wishiknewwho and I were wondering- would TenII be a hoarder. This little bit of fluff was the result.
“Doctor!” Rose screamed when the boxes fell onto her as she opened the spare bedroom door. The Doctor ran from the kitchen, brandishing his new sonic screwdriver, looking for the intruder who was attacking Rose. Finding her on the floor covered in the contents from the room, the Doctor giggled.
“Oops!” he said, trying to hide his smile from a clearly frustrated Rose. “I’m sorry, I was meaning to sort the stuff out in there.”
“Yes, Doctor,” Rose replied as she held her hand out for him to help her up. “You promised you would Ebay all this stuff again. Why on earth do you need to keep replenishing it all? You don’t need any of this rubbish.”
His mood changed straight away. Scratching his ear, the Doctor mumbled his apologies yet again. Rose struggled to hear what he was saying and moved closer to him. The contents of the spare room had been a bone of contention between them for a few months now. The Doctor would keep buying and finding what Rose deemed to be useless bits of tat, but he thought to be of great import. These would then be moved into the spare room for ‘safe keeping’.
Every so often Rose would get fed up with the mess in the room and demand he get rid of or sell the rubbish. He was getting very proficient at Ebaying his purchases. The trouble was the Doctor couldn’t keep the room empty, as soon as it was empty he would use the funds from Ebay to buy a whole new set of stuff for the room. Rose was getting to the end of her tether.
“What, Doctor?” she said, tapping her foot on the floor impatiently. She wasn’t really angry with the Doctor at his hoarding, she was more fed up because she didn’t understand why he did it.
“I said I keep things because I can’t keep people.” He turned away from Rose, embarrassed and ashamed of his failings. Kneeling down onto the floor and picking up the rock he’d picked up at Bad Wolf Bay, he fingered it gently, polishing it as his fingers moved in little circles over the rough edges.
“This was there on the best day of my life,” he murmured. “How can you ask me to get rid of the reminder?”
“Oh Doctor.” Rose sighed as she joined him on the floor and rubbed at his shoulder. “You don’t need the pebble to remind you of that day. You have me.”
Taking in a deep breath he answered, “But I’m so afraid Rose, so afraid I’m going to lose you.” He sniffed and wiped at his eyes and nose.
Rose’s heart broke at the Doctor’s inability to believe that he had finally got lucky that day all those months ago. Since that day they had worked so hard to have a brilliant life, full of love and laughter and hope for the future, but there were still times when the Doctor allowed himself to feel doubt and think Rose wouldn’t have chosen him if the ‘real’ Doctor hadn’t turned his back on her. She had spent many, many nights trying to make him see that she loved him and didn’t regret that day at all. She stretched her hand out to grasp the Doctor’s fingers tightly.
“I promise you, I am never leaving you. I promised you forever- the other Doctor has given us that forever. I’m not letting you go. You’re stuck with me.” She kissed his fingers as she talked, imploring him to believe her again.
“Stuck with you, that’s not so bad.” He smiled as he remembered her words.
“True.” Rose smiled, too. “Now come on Doctor, sort this room out. You can keep the rock. But we need the room cleared. And this time it must stay clear of all the junk.” Rose walked away down the hallway towards the main bedroom.
The Doctor grinned and stood up, following her. “Why do we need the room to be cleared all of a sudden?”
Rose returned from the en-suite with her hands behind her back. “Because, dear Doctor,” she said teasingly, “we need the room because of this.”
With that, Rose brought her hands around to the front of her and opened them, placing the white stick into his hands where he could see the two pink lines winking at him.