Fic - Breadcrumbs and Bathtubs - 2/2
Disclaimer, etc., found in Part One
Part Two
Rose stood in the hallway outside of her bedroom door. After giving directions to the Doctor so he could properly park the TARDIS, she'd run downstairs, making up excuses on the way to get out of having a cup of tea with Jackie. Part of her was nervous that once she opened the door, she'd find the room empty. It was that part of her that had consciously decided to not tell Jackie anything about what had transpired in the bathroom. Fear of it all being in her head won out over her excitement and, she reasoned; it was better to keep the Doctor's arrival a secret for a while rather than be labelled a nutter when it turned out he wasn't really there.
She took a steadying breath and opened the door, preparing herself for the inevitable disappointment.
Her bedroom light was turned off but there was no missing it. Smack in the centre of her room stood the TARDIS - big, square, blue, and utterly beautiful. A sigh of relief escaped her and she fully entered her room, closing and locking the door behind her. She couldn't take her eyes off of the ship and found herself walking up to it and running a hand across the wood panelling. She could feel a slight hum and she closed her eyes, the memories rushing back of how that hum had lulled her to sleep at night.
"She's missed you."
Rose dropped her hand and turned. The Doctor was standing in front of her bedroom window, the glow from the full moon lighting him from behind. "Yeah? Well, if she missed me so much, it sure took her a helluva long time to come pick me up."
He didn't smile at her jibe. "How long has it been?" he whispered.
Rose leaned against the TARDIS and crossed her arms. "Four years," she whispered in return. "You?"
"One-and-a-half. Well, two-and-a-half..." One hand ran through his already mussed-up hair and then rested against the back of his neck. "Well, really only one-and-a-half but not for me . . . and Martha . . . and her family . . . and . . .," he paused and looked at her sheepishly. "What was the question?"
"What took you so long?" Rose asked, smiling, though she felt like crying.
"Well, there was that whole saving the human race from certain annihilation thing that I had to take care of. Other than that I was just sitting around waiting for you to muddle your way back to me. And, might I add, that it took *you* long enough." At that, he broke and his effervescent grin seemed to light the room. He opened up his arms, reaching for her, and she crossed the room in three easy strides, allowing herself to be enveloped, once again, soundly in his embrace.
They stood, wrapped in each other, for several minutes. Rose simply breathed, pulling in the scent of him, committing it all to memory in case this was a temporary reunion. She wanted to capture every nuance in the event that it would have to hold her for the rest of her life. She rested her head against his chest and marvelled at the double beat of his hearts muffled through his layers of clothing, thinking that not even an hour prior, she had assumed that she'd never hear that gloriously alien sound again.
Her curiosity finally got the better of her, and she pulled back, slightly as it seemed from the grip he had on her that he wasn't planning on letting her go any time soon, "How did you do it?"
He shifted and looked down at her, meeting her eyes. "I didn't. It was all you."
"But, I didn't do anything," she protested, confused. "I tried - have been trying for years - but it all went flat."
At that, he took a step back, his hands resting on her forearms. "How about you tell me what you've been up to," he said, and he led her to the bed.
She sat down next to him, their hands clasped tightly, and she began. "Well, it's a long story, so I'm going to cut a bit out. I don't know how much time we have here and I don't want to waste it all when a summary will do." He smiled and squeezed her fingers, completely ignoring her point about wanting to know how long he'd be able to stay.
She sighed, knowing that he'd caught her hint and was keeping the answer to himself. As infuriating as that was, she chose not to push it and, instead, started on her side of the story. "'Course you remember when you regenerated; I'd absorbed the Time Vortex." After his nod, she continued. "You didn't tell me everything that happened," she accused, "and I didn't remember much of it on my own. Until about two years ago."
Rose shifted on the bed, turning to face him. He was watching her attentively and she found herself warming at the intensity of his gaze. "I started having dreams. It was like my memory was coming back to me in little bits and pieces. I went back to Bad Wolf Bay - two years to the day after we said goodbye - and that's when it all fell into place."
The Doctor shrugged, "What?"
"Bad Wolf Bay," Rose said it again. "When I was . . . possessed, I guess, by the Time Vortex, I told you I could see everything, remember? I don't actually remember what it was that I saw, that part is still murky, but I must have been able to see this possible timeline - I knew that we would become separated - so I made myself a path to find my way back to you. How else could that stretch of beach in Norway in a completely different, parallel universe, one that I didn't even know existed at the time, be named Bad Wolf Bay? And, what are the odds that we would end up there, conveniently meeting up again on that particular stretch of beach because that was the only remaining rip in the fabric between worlds? The odds are phenomenal! It had to be a clue. So, I went to work following my clues."
As Rose explained, the Doctor's eyes had grown wider and wider. "You're serious," he finally said, when she'd paused. "What if it had been just a wild coincidence?"
"That's what I had been thinking until you showed up in my mum's bathroom tonight," she admitted. "It had taken me two years of bouncing all over the world and beyond, following a trail of breadcrumbs, really, and thank goodness for Torchwood, too. It all led to the Eternals. But they said that they wouldn't help me. That was this afternoon."
"And, yet, here I am," the Doctor added, smiling broadly.
"But, I don't understand how." Rose shook her head and bit her lip as she replayed her meeting with the Eternals. "They were smug bastards, really. Seemed to take an interest in my problem but, at the end, told me that they were terribly sorry but they couldn't help."
The Doctor leaned forward and grasped her other hand, holding both of them on his lap. "What do you know about the Eternals?"
"Nothing, really," she admitted.
"You see, there was this boat race, in space," he paused. "But that's not really relevant to the here and now. You're right, though. They're smug bastards, very haughty, in my vastly educated opinion. However, there was one Eternal that you met today who is just a little different from the others. He was involved with that boat race and he recognised me in your memories, although how is still a mystery to me because that was several regenerations ago - back when I seemed to like wearing vegetables on my lapel."
Rose was trying to follow the Doctor's story but was having a hard time of it, so she just nodded for him to continue, making a note to ask him about the vegetables later.
"They can read minds; that's how they exist. Pick up everything up there," he tapped himself at the temple, "even me. They've been around for so long that they've run out of original ideas, so they read the minds of other creatures, they call them ephemerals, in order to entertain themselves. This particular Eternal took an interest in one of my companions at the time, Tegan - you'd have liked her; stubborn, no-nonsense, liked to bicker with me, too." He paused and smiled wistfully. "But what was I saying? Right, Tegan, this Eternal, called himself Marriner, pretty much followed her around the whole time like a lovesick puppy, which was funny, really, because the Eternals don't actually have a concept of love."
"In any case, he claimed that he felt bad for you, something about your sparkle being gone after they turned you down, so he convinced his elders to find me, instead, and allow me, trustworthy Time Lord that I am, the ability to cross the Void to come here to you. Only temporarily, though. It's more of a round-trip ticket, so once I leave, I can't come back."
He released her hands and, with one finger under her chin, closed her mouth. "You're gaping," he informed her. "Why are you gaping?"
Rose tried to wrap her mind around it. Most of what the Doctor had said had made no sense to her at all, and wasn't that just like him, but the essence of his story was that it had worked. Her idea, her plan, had really worked! She *had* planted clues for herself - and it *had* led her back to him - or, more exactly, him back to her. "I did it," she murmured.
"You did," he confirmed.
She looked at him, letting the moment wash over her. "I really, really did it!"
He nodded.
Unable to hold back any longer, she launched herself at him, wrapping him in a hug. Her momentum carried them over and she found herself lying on top of him, foreheads touching. "I really did it," she whispered.
"Yes, you did," he repeated, just as quietly.
"What do we do now?" she asked, still laying on him, nose-to-nose, his breath ticking her lips.
"We could go catch a film," he suggested, a twinkle of mirth in his eye.
"I have a better idea," she countered, and then she lowered her lips to his, meeting them tentatively, testing him.
She needn't have worried that he wouldn't respond. As soon as their lips met, his hold on her tightened, and she heard a groan rise from his throat. It was a chaste and tender kiss, though his grip on her would have caused her to think otherwise, so she upped the stakes and opened her lips slightly, hoping he would reciprocate.
His tongue snaked out and met with hers, the kiss deepening. She could hardly breathe through the emotions warring within her. His hands were on her back now, and she could feel them splayed open wide, holding her to him. She slid her hands up the back of head, running her fingers though his hair, playing out a fantasy she'd had since the infernal Cassandra had possessed her on New Earth. His hair felt heavenly in her fingers and she used her newfound grip to pull him even closer, refusing to give in for her need for oxygen.
Who needed to breathe, anyway, when there was a Time Lord in your bed?
Thoughts were tumbling about her head, most of them about how amazing his lips felt on hers, or how thorough and skilled he was with his tongue. Other thoughts tried to interrupt, though, and one of them kept niggling. Reluctantly, Rose pulled back, sucked in a much needed breath of air, and asked, "Who's Martha?"
The Doctor looked up at her through glassy eyes. "What?"
"I asked, 'who is Martha'?" Rose propped herself up on her elbows but made no move to slide off of the recumbent Doctor. She had him right where she wanted him and didn't plan on giving up the high ground any time soon.
"Are you serious?" He pulled his head back into her pillow as if trying to get a better look at her. "Really serious? You want to talk about this. Now?"
Rose shrugged and reached up to play with a lock of his hair that had flopped onto his forehead. "Seems as good a time as any, seeing as we're snogging on my bed, and I'm wearing nothing but a dressing gown. If there's another woman, I think I've got a right to know about her." Her tone was playful, and she hoped that it was a decent enough cover for her insecurity.
She had known since meeting Sarah Jane that the Doctor seldom travelled alone and that she certainly wasn't the first in what seemed to be a long line of travelling companions. She also wasn't fooling herself with the notion that after she'd left him he'd wallowed in self-pity, refusing to speak to anyone else, much less allow a new companion into his TARDIS. She'd spent nights thinking about it, honestly hoping that he'd found someone to keep him company.
The Doctor sighed and closed his eyes. "Martha travelled with me for a short time. She works for UNIT now. I called in a couple of favours to get her a good position. I owed her as much for what she went through. She saved my life." He opened his eyes and, quite seriously, said, "But, she didn't 'replace' you, Rose. No one could ever replace you. Yes, she travelled with me, and she kept me company, and she's a friend, but she's not you."
Rose quietly absorbed what he was saying, letting his words soothe her concerns. Then, with a quick peck on his lips, she admitted, "You're a pretty hard act to follow, too." And with that, she climbed off of him and walked toward her closet.
"What are you doing?"
She opened the door and pulled out a suitcase. "Packing," she answered over her shoulder.
"You're coming back with me?"
He sounded so small, the way he couldn't disguise the fact that he was truly worried that she'd want to stay. She set the case down and turned, hands on her hips. "Doctor, I told you years ago that I'd made my choice. I haven't changed my mind."
"You'd leave your family for me." It wasn't a question so much as him stating the fact out loud.
"I didn't spend the last four years of my life working to get back to you only to snog you senseless and then let you go. It doesn't work like that." Rose crossed back over to her bed and reached out for his hands, taking them firmly in her own. "That is, if you still want me to travel with you."
His eyebrows shot up at that and he practically squeaked, "What?" He was on his feet, in an instant. "Have I given you the impression that I don’t want you to come back with me? Because, if I have, that wasn't my intention. I want you with me, Rose Tyler. I just don't want you to regret leaving Jackie and Pete and Mickey and, I suppose your little brother, too. I don't want you to resent me for taking you away from them."
Rose had been nodding her head throughout his babbling and finally reached out and placed her fingers on his lips, silencing him. "I made my choice, Doctor, four years ago. I haven't changed my mind," she repeated, firmly. "Besides, we've both made contact with the Eternals now and they have the ability to hop universes. Do you honestly think that, together, you 'n me, the stuff of legends and all that, that we can't convince them to help us out every so often so I can hop back over to check on things?"
He smiled under her fingers and she moved them so he could answer. "I didn't think of that."
"I know. How did you ever make it without me?" Rose grinned and thrilled when he grasped her face and pulled her into a kiss. She wondered as his lips played over hers, if that would ever start to feel ordinary. She figured that it wouldn't.
"It wasn't easy," he whispered against her lips.
"I need to get dressed," she whispered back. "We're going to have to talk to Mum and Pete."
The Doctor sighed. "I don't suppose I could convince you to just hop in the TARDIS and leave a note for Jackie on your pillow?" Rose frowned at him and he shrugged. "It was worth a try."
Rose grabbed some clothes from a hamper at the foot of her bed and stepped into her bathroom, "I don't know what you're so worried about. Mum hasn't smacked you in ages. In fact, if I remember right, and I'm sure I do, she planted a few wet ones on you the last time you brought me home." She emerged, hastily though fully dressed, to find him with a look of abject horror on his face.
"I'd rather she was smacking me," he said, gravely, and shuddered.
Rose smiled and reached for his hand, pulling him after her as she unlocked her bedroom door and stepped into the hallway. She shared a smile with the Doctor before calling down the stairs, "Mum! Look what I found!"
end
Part Two
Rose stood in the hallway outside of her bedroom door. After giving directions to the Doctor so he could properly park the TARDIS, she'd run downstairs, making up excuses on the way to get out of having a cup of tea with Jackie. Part of her was nervous that once she opened the door, she'd find the room empty. It was that part of her that had consciously decided to not tell Jackie anything about what had transpired in the bathroom. Fear of it all being in her head won out over her excitement and, she reasoned; it was better to keep the Doctor's arrival a secret for a while rather than be labelled a nutter when it turned out he wasn't really there.
She took a steadying breath and opened the door, preparing herself for the inevitable disappointment.
Her bedroom light was turned off but there was no missing it. Smack in the centre of her room stood the TARDIS - big, square, blue, and utterly beautiful. A sigh of relief escaped her and she fully entered her room, closing and locking the door behind her. She couldn't take her eyes off of the ship and found herself walking up to it and running a hand across the wood panelling. She could feel a slight hum and she closed her eyes, the memories rushing back of how that hum had lulled her to sleep at night.
"She's missed you."
Rose dropped her hand and turned. The Doctor was standing in front of her bedroom window, the glow from the full moon lighting him from behind. "Yeah? Well, if she missed me so much, it sure took her a helluva long time to come pick me up."
He didn't smile at her jibe. "How long has it been?" he whispered.
Rose leaned against the TARDIS and crossed her arms. "Four years," she whispered in return. "You?"
"One-and-a-half. Well, two-and-a-half..." One hand ran through his already mussed-up hair and then rested against the back of his neck. "Well, really only one-and-a-half but not for me . . . and Martha . . . and her family . . . and . . .," he paused and looked at her sheepishly. "What was the question?"
"What took you so long?" Rose asked, smiling, though she felt like crying.
"Well, there was that whole saving the human race from certain annihilation thing that I had to take care of. Other than that I was just sitting around waiting for you to muddle your way back to me. And, might I add, that it took *you* long enough." At that, he broke and his effervescent grin seemed to light the room. He opened up his arms, reaching for her, and she crossed the room in three easy strides, allowing herself to be enveloped, once again, soundly in his embrace.
They stood, wrapped in each other, for several minutes. Rose simply breathed, pulling in the scent of him, committing it all to memory in case this was a temporary reunion. She wanted to capture every nuance in the event that it would have to hold her for the rest of her life. She rested her head against his chest and marvelled at the double beat of his hearts muffled through his layers of clothing, thinking that not even an hour prior, she had assumed that she'd never hear that gloriously alien sound again.
Her curiosity finally got the better of her, and she pulled back, slightly as it seemed from the grip he had on her that he wasn't planning on letting her go any time soon, "How did you do it?"
He shifted and looked down at her, meeting her eyes. "I didn't. It was all you."
"But, I didn't do anything," she protested, confused. "I tried - have been trying for years - but it all went flat."
At that, he took a step back, his hands resting on her forearms. "How about you tell me what you've been up to," he said, and he led her to the bed.
She sat down next to him, their hands clasped tightly, and she began. "Well, it's a long story, so I'm going to cut a bit out. I don't know how much time we have here and I don't want to waste it all when a summary will do." He smiled and squeezed her fingers, completely ignoring her point about wanting to know how long he'd be able to stay.
She sighed, knowing that he'd caught her hint and was keeping the answer to himself. As infuriating as that was, she chose not to push it and, instead, started on her side of the story. "'Course you remember when you regenerated; I'd absorbed the Time Vortex." After his nod, she continued. "You didn't tell me everything that happened," she accused, "and I didn't remember much of it on my own. Until about two years ago."
Rose shifted on the bed, turning to face him. He was watching her attentively and she found herself warming at the intensity of his gaze. "I started having dreams. It was like my memory was coming back to me in little bits and pieces. I went back to Bad Wolf Bay - two years to the day after we said goodbye - and that's when it all fell into place."
The Doctor shrugged, "What?"
"Bad Wolf Bay," Rose said it again. "When I was . . . possessed, I guess, by the Time Vortex, I told you I could see everything, remember? I don't actually remember what it was that I saw, that part is still murky, but I must have been able to see this possible timeline - I knew that we would become separated - so I made myself a path to find my way back to you. How else could that stretch of beach in Norway in a completely different, parallel universe, one that I didn't even know existed at the time, be named Bad Wolf Bay? And, what are the odds that we would end up there, conveniently meeting up again on that particular stretch of beach because that was the only remaining rip in the fabric between worlds? The odds are phenomenal! It had to be a clue. So, I went to work following my clues."
As Rose explained, the Doctor's eyes had grown wider and wider. "You're serious," he finally said, when she'd paused. "What if it had been just a wild coincidence?"
"That's what I had been thinking until you showed up in my mum's bathroom tonight," she admitted. "It had taken me two years of bouncing all over the world and beyond, following a trail of breadcrumbs, really, and thank goodness for Torchwood, too. It all led to the Eternals. But they said that they wouldn't help me. That was this afternoon."
"And, yet, here I am," the Doctor added, smiling broadly.
"But, I don't understand how." Rose shook her head and bit her lip as she replayed her meeting with the Eternals. "They were smug bastards, really. Seemed to take an interest in my problem but, at the end, told me that they were terribly sorry but they couldn't help."
The Doctor leaned forward and grasped her other hand, holding both of them on his lap. "What do you know about the Eternals?"
"Nothing, really," she admitted.
"You see, there was this boat race, in space," he paused. "But that's not really relevant to the here and now. You're right, though. They're smug bastards, very haughty, in my vastly educated opinion. However, there was one Eternal that you met today who is just a little different from the others. He was involved with that boat race and he recognised me in your memories, although how is still a mystery to me because that was several regenerations ago - back when I seemed to like wearing vegetables on my lapel."
Rose was trying to follow the Doctor's story but was having a hard time of it, so she just nodded for him to continue, making a note to ask him about the vegetables later.
"They can read minds; that's how they exist. Pick up everything up there," he tapped himself at the temple, "even me. They've been around for so long that they've run out of original ideas, so they read the minds of other creatures, they call them ephemerals, in order to entertain themselves. This particular Eternal took an interest in one of my companions at the time, Tegan - you'd have liked her; stubborn, no-nonsense, liked to bicker with me, too." He paused and smiled wistfully. "But what was I saying? Right, Tegan, this Eternal, called himself Marriner, pretty much followed her around the whole time like a lovesick puppy, which was funny, really, because the Eternals don't actually have a concept of love."
"In any case, he claimed that he felt bad for you, something about your sparkle being gone after they turned you down, so he convinced his elders to find me, instead, and allow me, trustworthy Time Lord that I am, the ability to cross the Void to come here to you. Only temporarily, though. It's more of a round-trip ticket, so once I leave, I can't come back."
He released her hands and, with one finger under her chin, closed her mouth. "You're gaping," he informed her. "Why are you gaping?"
Rose tried to wrap her mind around it. Most of what the Doctor had said had made no sense to her at all, and wasn't that just like him, but the essence of his story was that it had worked. Her idea, her plan, had really worked! She *had* planted clues for herself - and it *had* led her back to him - or, more exactly, him back to her. "I did it," she murmured.
"You did," he confirmed.
She looked at him, letting the moment wash over her. "I really, really did it!"
He nodded.
Unable to hold back any longer, she launched herself at him, wrapping him in a hug. Her momentum carried them over and she found herself lying on top of him, foreheads touching. "I really did it," she whispered.
"Yes, you did," he repeated, just as quietly.
"What do we do now?" she asked, still laying on him, nose-to-nose, his breath ticking her lips.
"We could go catch a film," he suggested, a twinkle of mirth in his eye.
"I have a better idea," she countered, and then she lowered her lips to his, meeting them tentatively, testing him.
She needn't have worried that he wouldn't respond. As soon as their lips met, his hold on her tightened, and she heard a groan rise from his throat. It was a chaste and tender kiss, though his grip on her would have caused her to think otherwise, so she upped the stakes and opened her lips slightly, hoping he would reciprocate.
His tongue snaked out and met with hers, the kiss deepening. She could hardly breathe through the emotions warring within her. His hands were on her back now, and she could feel them splayed open wide, holding her to him. She slid her hands up the back of head, running her fingers though his hair, playing out a fantasy she'd had since the infernal Cassandra had possessed her on New Earth. His hair felt heavenly in her fingers and she used her newfound grip to pull him even closer, refusing to give in for her need for oxygen.
Who needed to breathe, anyway, when there was a Time Lord in your bed?
Thoughts were tumbling about her head, most of them about how amazing his lips felt on hers, or how thorough and skilled he was with his tongue. Other thoughts tried to interrupt, though, and one of them kept niggling. Reluctantly, Rose pulled back, sucked in a much needed breath of air, and asked, "Who's Martha?"
The Doctor looked up at her through glassy eyes. "What?"
"I asked, 'who is Martha'?" Rose propped herself up on her elbows but made no move to slide off of the recumbent Doctor. She had him right where she wanted him and didn't plan on giving up the high ground any time soon.
"Are you serious?" He pulled his head back into her pillow as if trying to get a better look at her. "Really serious? You want to talk about this. Now?"
Rose shrugged and reached up to play with a lock of his hair that had flopped onto his forehead. "Seems as good a time as any, seeing as we're snogging on my bed, and I'm wearing nothing but a dressing gown. If there's another woman, I think I've got a right to know about her." Her tone was playful, and she hoped that it was a decent enough cover for her insecurity.
She had known since meeting Sarah Jane that the Doctor seldom travelled alone and that she certainly wasn't the first in what seemed to be a long line of travelling companions. She also wasn't fooling herself with the notion that after she'd left him he'd wallowed in self-pity, refusing to speak to anyone else, much less allow a new companion into his TARDIS. She'd spent nights thinking about it, honestly hoping that he'd found someone to keep him company.
The Doctor sighed and closed his eyes. "Martha travelled with me for a short time. She works for UNIT now. I called in a couple of favours to get her a good position. I owed her as much for what she went through. She saved my life." He opened his eyes and, quite seriously, said, "But, she didn't 'replace' you, Rose. No one could ever replace you. Yes, she travelled with me, and she kept me company, and she's a friend, but she's not you."
Rose quietly absorbed what he was saying, letting his words soothe her concerns. Then, with a quick peck on his lips, she admitted, "You're a pretty hard act to follow, too." And with that, she climbed off of him and walked toward her closet.
"What are you doing?"
She opened the door and pulled out a suitcase. "Packing," she answered over her shoulder.
"You're coming back with me?"
He sounded so small, the way he couldn't disguise the fact that he was truly worried that she'd want to stay. She set the case down and turned, hands on her hips. "Doctor, I told you years ago that I'd made my choice. I haven't changed my mind."
"You'd leave your family for me." It wasn't a question so much as him stating the fact out loud.
"I didn't spend the last four years of my life working to get back to you only to snog you senseless and then let you go. It doesn't work like that." Rose crossed back over to her bed and reached out for his hands, taking them firmly in her own. "That is, if you still want me to travel with you."
His eyebrows shot up at that and he practically squeaked, "What?" He was on his feet, in an instant. "Have I given you the impression that I don’t want you to come back with me? Because, if I have, that wasn't my intention. I want you with me, Rose Tyler. I just don't want you to regret leaving Jackie and Pete and Mickey and, I suppose your little brother, too. I don't want you to resent me for taking you away from them."
Rose had been nodding her head throughout his babbling and finally reached out and placed her fingers on his lips, silencing him. "I made my choice, Doctor, four years ago. I haven't changed my mind," she repeated, firmly. "Besides, we've both made contact with the Eternals now and they have the ability to hop universes. Do you honestly think that, together, you 'n me, the stuff of legends and all that, that we can't convince them to help us out every so often so I can hop back over to check on things?"
He smiled under her fingers and she moved them so he could answer. "I didn't think of that."
"I know. How did you ever make it without me?" Rose grinned and thrilled when he grasped her face and pulled her into a kiss. She wondered as his lips played over hers, if that would ever start to feel ordinary. She figured that it wouldn't.
"It wasn't easy," he whispered against her lips.
"I need to get dressed," she whispered back. "We're going to have to talk to Mum and Pete."
The Doctor sighed. "I don't suppose I could convince you to just hop in the TARDIS and leave a note for Jackie on your pillow?" Rose frowned at him and he shrugged. "It was worth a try."
Rose grabbed some clothes from a hamper at the foot of her bed and stepped into her bathroom, "I don't know what you're so worried about. Mum hasn't smacked you in ages. In fact, if I remember right, and I'm sure I do, she planted a few wet ones on you the last time you brought me home." She emerged, hastily though fully dressed, to find him with a look of abject horror on his face.
"I'd rather she was smacking me," he said, gravely, and shuddered.
Rose smiled and reached for his hand, pulling him after her as she unlocked her bedroom door and stepped into the hallway. She shared a smile with the Doctor before calling down the stairs, "Mum! Look what I found!"
end