Fic: Customs and Traditions (Doctor Who; Doctor/Rose; Universal Realignment 'verse)
Story Title: Customs and Traditions
Series Title: part of the Realignment universe
Author: butterfly
Summary: The Doctor and Rose make a couple of promises.
Pairing: Doctor/Rose
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: AU after Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords". Some lines in the beginning are snagged from the end of "Last of the Time Lords", which was written by the irreplaceable Russell T Davies.
Customs and Traditions
"You've been living in Cardiff," Rose said, leaning against the railing. She blinked hard, not quite ready for this goodbye. "Because of the Rift?"
"Because I knew that the Doctor would come back here," Jack said. Rose looked over at him - he had a soft smile on his face, one foot propped up on the lower railing. "You missed the fireworks this time, Rose."
"How do you mean?" Rose asked.
"The Doctor was famous," Martha said, from over on the other side of Rose, past the Doctor. "He had… everyone had to know his name so we could save the world. But now they've all forgotten him."
"That's as it should be," the Doctor said, quietly. Rose touched his elbow and glanced at him, and he smiled at her and pressed his fingers over her hand.
"Well, back to work," Jack said, pushing away from the railing. Rose reached out and grabbed his coat before he could duck underneath - he paused and then pulled her into a warm, tight hug. "You know where to find me now, Rose. Come see me sometime."
Rose nodded, not wanting to say anything for fear of her voice breaking. Everything she'd done to Jack and everything she'd failed to do, and he still forgave her. He pulled away from the hug and cupped her cheek, briefly. Rose leaned forward and pressed a tender kiss to the corner of his mouth.
"I promise," she whispered. His eyes were shining bright blue - more than normal and that made her feel better - he was holding back tears, too. She pulled back and cleared her throat, speaking more loudly. "Or you can keep on with us. We wouldn't mind. Would we, Doctor?"
"We would love to have you," the Doctor said, and Rose was glad that he didn't emphasize the 'we' too much. She and Mickey had had more than one conversation in the other world about how left out he'd felt when he'd been travelling with her and the Doctor. She couldn't exactly regret wanting to be alone with the Doctor, but she'd never wanted anyone else to feel hurt because of that, either. "Come with us."
"I've had plenty of time to think over the last year and over the last couple of days," Jack said, looking over at the Doctor, with this warm glow in his eyes. "And I kept thinking about that team of mine. The work we do is good work, Doctor."
He loved them, with the whole of his heart. Rose decided right then and there that she and the Doctor would have to come back to meet this group of people that put that look into Jack's eyes. They had to be something special.
"Defending the Earth," the Doctor said. Startled by the familiar words, Rose glanced over at him - his smile seemed a bit sheepish now, and even slightly uncomfortable. "Can't argue with that."
"Thank you," Jack said, and there was a nuance that Rose didn't recognize in their words, something that had happened while she'd been gone. Jack slipped between the railings and turned to head off… and then stopped as the Doctor reached forward and snagged his wrist. "Hey!"
Rose backed up a step, watching with interest. The Doctor had pulled out his sonic screwdriver and was pointing it at Jack's vortex manipulator.
"I need that," Jack protested.
"I can't have you walking around with a time-travelling teleport," the Doctor said, as if annoyed that he had to explain at all. Rose was torn between indignation on Jack's behalf and amusement. "You could go anywhere. Twice. The second time to apologize."
"Rose - are you really going to let him do this?" Jack said, looking over at her hopefully.
"Oi! I'm not getting in the middle of you two," Rose said. Then she froze, realizing that she'd just-
"Well, there go half my fantasies."
-handed Jack the perfect set-up line. Rose started giggling and she could hear Martha laughing, too. Even the Doctor raised an amused eyebrow, though he didn't pause in what he was doing.
"So, I'm really fixed?" Jack asked after the Doctor let him go. "I can die now?"
"You'll live a good three or four hundred more years and you should still be able to fling yourself in front of bullets for another two hundred or so," the Doctor said. "But, yes, after that, you'll be able to die."
"Thank you so much," Jack said again, this time to Martha. Rose glanced between them, wondering if the Doctor was right. She didn't see anything apart from Jack's natural manner, though, and Martha wasn't volunteering to go with him. Jack started to turn away and then he turned back, snapping into a formal posture and… raising up his arm for a salute.
"Sir," Jack said to the Doctor, who acknowledged the formality with a casual gesture. Jack looked over at Martha and winked. "Ma'am." He finished the salute and then glanced one last time at Rose, briefly touching his fingers to his lips. "Good luck, Rose."
He grinned at them and, before Rose could ask him just what he meant, he turned and headed off, jogging toward the Millenium Centre. She thought about going after him and then looked over at the Doctor, who was already looking in her direction, a tiny smile touching his lips, and she had a feeling she already knew what Jack was talking about.
"Well, I need to check up on my family," Martha said. The Doctor actually flinched slightly, though Rose didn't think that Martha had noticed. "You said that there'd be no need for a time change, just a quick location jump."
"We can do that," the Doctor said, smiling valiantly, though Rose could see the shadows in his eyes. She carefully threaded her arm through his and he turned to her, lighting up. "Let's go check on the Jones clan."
The TARDIS wasn't far away at all, and Rose kept the Doctor pulled back a bit - he needed the space, she reckoned. He still hadn't told her everything about that awful year and she'd bet that this had something to do with it. Martha was walking just a bit ahead of them, turning something over in her hands.
"You all right?" she asked, quietly enough that Martha wouldn't hear. The Doctor opened his mouth, almost certainly to claim that he was always all right and she glared at him a bit. He shut his mouth, seemed to give the matter more thought and then shook his head, ever so slightly.
"They went through hell because of me," the Doctor said, also very softly. Rose had to strain to hear him, even as close as he was to her. "So did Martha. Above and beyond the call of duty, as it were."
"It's not your fault," Rose said, as fiercely as she could in a whisper. "However you're making it your fault in your head, it isn't, okay?"
"He was one of my people, Rose," he said. "He hurt them… he hurt this whole planet… just because he knew that it would hurt me."
"Your old boyfriend being insane is not your fault," Rose said, firmly. "I'm willing to say it as many times as it takes for you to believe it."
"He wasn't my- oh, I suppose the term is as good as any," the Doctor said, with a heavy sigh. Rose grinned at him cheekily and he scowled at her, though his hand was still tightly wrapped around her own.
When they reached the TARDIS, Martha opened it and headed in without looking back at them, still seeming consumed in her own thoughts.
"Something's bothering her," Rose said, tilting her head.
"What makes you say that?" the Doctor asked, in tones of purest confusion. All the intelligence in the universe and he still couldn't find his way to another person's emotional state even when provided with a map, compass, and guided audio tour.
"It's obvious," Rose said. The Doctor stared at her, completely lost. "She didn't look at us once on the way back here."
"I thought she was just concentrating," he said. "She looks bothered to you?"
Rose rolled her eyes and pulled the Doctor into the TARDIS, shutting the door behind them. "Where is it that you live, Martha?"
"Oh, the Doctor knows," Martha said lightly, and even with the Doctor's limitations when it came to human emotions, he had to be picking up on Martha's signals at this point. Rose glanced over at the Doctor, who was staring at Martha as though she were an unexpected spacial anomaly, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Right," Rose said. Martha was staring at the screen, and she looked just as lost looking at that as the Doctor had when Rose had mentioned Martha's emotions. "Look, I'd be absolutely rubbish at anything right now. The journey's caught up with me, I think. Why don't the two of you take care of everything while I get some rest?"
Martha looked up at Rose and she looked intensely relieved. Rose had guessed right, then. Martha was planning on staying behind with her family and she didn't particularly want Rose there when she said goodbye to the Doctor.
"Are you feeling all right?" the Doctor asked, turning her toward him, looking worried. "You didn't get hurt, did you? I never did get a chance to properly check you over after the Opanilicks attacked you. You should have said something if you were in pain, Rose. I can't read your mind - well, I could, but you've implied that it would be rude and I-"
"Doctor," Rose interrupted. "I'm fine. I just want to lie down for a bit. Alone. While you and Martha check in on her family."
"Oh," the Doctor said, deflating. "Well… I suppose that's- alone?"
"Alone," Rose confirmed, carefully prying away the Doctor's hands. "I'll see you later."
"You won't be too long," the Doctor said, his voice making a noble attempt at sounding casual.
"No," Rose said, tenderness washing through her. "I'll come back out in a bit."
She pulled away from him, sending an apologetic look in Martha's direction, and then headed off in the general direction of her room. She would give the two of them an hour, she decided, and then she'd come back out and see how the Doctor was doing.
Of course, since she wasn't the least bit tired, that meant she could spend this hour refamiliarizing herself with the TARDIS. She turned down a random hallway, keeping one hand on the wall, soaking in the warm hum that the Doctor's ship always emitted. When she'd been in the parallel world, she'd missed that sound so much. For years, she'd had trouble adjusting to sleeping without it.
She didn't quite understand how Jack and Martha could ever walk away from this.
It was an hour and a half later that she wandered back into the control room, fairly certain that Martha had said her goodbyes - the TARDIS was in flight again.
"She left," the Doctor said, sounding baffled. "And she invited us for Christmas."
"I think we should go," Rose said, coming up next to him. He glanced over at her - the confusion in his eyes melted away and there was just that deep contentment that made Rose want to purr with joy. "Christmas with Martha Jones and her family sounds like a lovely idea."
She pushed away the tiny pangs of longing that coiled in her stomach. She'd had years of the entire family spoiling baby Tony, a Pete Tyler who'd been close enough to a dad to count, her mum making Christmas dinner and surprising the staff - still not used to a Mrs. Tyler who did for herself - and Mickey and Jake coming over with quirky presents.
"But not yet," the Doctor said, startling a laugh out of Rose. It would take time to get used to holidays that happened when the Doctor decided that they should happen, rather than happening once every three-hundred and sixty-five days (sixty-six on leap years).
"No, not yet," she agreed.
"I…" the Doctor trailed off, looking tense and a bit… shy, maybe. "I have a list."
"A list of what?" Rose asked. The Doctor blushed, pink flooding his cheeks, and Rose blinked in surprise.
"It's a list of… well… it's- it's the places that I wished I'd had the chance to take you," he said. "I… it's quite long, really. I just started it up one day, after you'd gone. I knew that… I believed that I would never see you again, but I thought-"
He was looking away from her, his words stumbling out.
"I would write down the name of a planet or… or a time period, and I would imagine that I had taken you there," he said, his gaze fixed on the monitor screen. "It- it wasn't as good as going there with you would have been, of course. You always manage to surprise me, Rose, so I knew that my head was never going to get it quite right. But even that shadow of you was…"
Rose touched his shoulder, trying to think of anything she could possibly say - though even if she thought of words, she might not be able to get them out through the lump in her throat. The Doctor turned toward her, his gaze now fixed around the level of her chin, still avoiding her eyes.
"Doctor," Rose began, and then stopped. He reached out and stroked her TARDIS key, which was still outside her shirt, though she couldn't remember ever actually pulling it out.
"I don't believe that I've ever shown you my bedroom," the Doctor said, voice low, his glance flicking upward to meet hers. Each word was slow and deliberate, and Rose wondered if, to the Doctor, asking a girl to his room meant the same thing that it would to a human bloke. After all, he'd been barging into her room since her second night on the ship and yet never made a move toward her. "Would you like to see it?"
"Yeah," Rose said, feeling a bit breathless. If he was- if they were… the last time Rose had had sex had been two years ago, with Mark. And he'd been human, of course. The Doctor would be different, just because of being who he was. She could dimly recall something her mum had said, back when she'd first met this version of the Doctor and she'd told her mum he had two hearts - 'what else has he got two of?' He didn't have two, she knew that much, but there were so many other tiny ways that he wasn't like humans, so there would be something different about him this way, too. She wondered if he'd be inside her head the whole time and what… what that would feel like.
The Doctor backed up a step and then he held out his hand toward her - he wasn't smiling, but his eyes were so warm. Rose placed her hand in his, delicately, uncertain about the odd formality in the Doctor's manner. He didn't start walking yet, instead, he reached inside his jacket pocket with his other hand, finding what he was looking for with remarkable ease. He must have known just where it was.
It was a tiny wooden box, carved with the swirls and circles of the Doctor's language. She took it, decided not to ask for her other hand back to open it, instead seeing if- ah! There was a tiny catch in the front that flew open at her touch.
It was a tiny, fragile bracelet - it appeared to be silver, but probably wasn't. It was incredibly thin, but complicated, with many strands looped together. Rose wasn't entirely sure how he possibly expected her to put it on while he was still holding her hand. It looked like it would just slip over her wrist, though. She glanced up at the Doctor, who still had that serious look in his eyes.
"Normally, we would have witnesses," he said. "Our mothers preferably, though the age of the ritual means that not all mothers would have been willing. Anyone from my planet would have punished both of us if they knew I was doing this - the occasional union with lower life forms was tolerated, though disliked, but partnership is supposed to exist only between two Time Lords."
"Are you asking me to marry you?" She'd said those words to Mark, too, but though she was just as surprised this time, everything else was different.
"I'm asking you to formalize something that's always been true between us," he said. "This ritual… the essence of it is the declaration that you feel that this person is your match in every way. The Council never believed that to be possible with anyone other than another Time Lord but… they were wrong."
"Are there words?"
"Nothing complicated," he said. "And it translates well enough to English - though, if you like, I can teach you the Gallifreyan for it later. The concept is elegantly simple. The petitioner - that's me - gives you an offering that declares that they feel you are their true equal. It's… it's a promise, Rose, one that states that I will never act for you, but only with you. Then you have to decide whether or not you accept that and feel the same way."
"This means you won't make my own choices for me anymore," Rose said, thinking of the Game Station and of Torchwood Tower. "Even if you think it's for my own good."
"Yes," he agreed. He looked grim but determined. "Even if… even if I knew the situation was impossible to survive, if you wanted to stay, I would have to respect your choice. No matter what. I know that it's something you've wanted, but it's… it's a hard promise to make."
"Thank you," Rose said and she'd never meant the words more in her life.
"Are you saying yes?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh, put that bracelet on me," she said, with a bit of a laugh. He smiled, finally, and plucked the piece of jewellery out of the box. The box snapped shut again as soon as his hand was clear.
"You can keep that, too," he said. "It's part of the gift."
Rose slipped it into her jacket pocket. The Doctor turned over the hand of hers that he'd already been holding, and took a shaky breath.
"Are you all right?"
"Fine," he said, but his voice was a bit high. He seemed to notice that, too, closing his eyes for just a moment. "I'm perfectly fine, Rose."
"What happens next?"
"I tell you why I've asked you to accept me, and you tell me why you said yes," the Doctor said. "Then, I place the bracelet around your wrist and I kiss the palm of your hand."
"Is that all you kiss?"
The Doctor's mouth fell open - he looked like a fish, gawping away.
"Sorry, did I ruin the moment?" Rose asked, doing her best not to laugh. "It's that silly human sex drive of mine. Carry on."
The Doctor mouthed the word 'sex', which was pretty fascinating to watch, and then he shivered all over.
"You were going to tell me nice things about me," Rose said, helpfully. "Then I'm going to say nice things about you."
"Right. I… yes," the Doctor managed, finally. Rose waited, blinking up at him innocently. "The first time we met, you were already starting to impress me. You were completely wrong about everything, of course, but you had a clever mind. I… noticed… during the time that you were gone, that I wasn't figuring things out as quickly. You always noticed something that I missed and when we worked together, it took so much less time to figure things out."
Rose smiled, but when she would have responded, the Doctor shook his head. Right - this wasn't just him giving her a compliment, this was a ceremony.
"It took you a bit of time to get used to aliens that look alien, but once you did, you offered them the full force of your compassion. Your heart has more kindness than any other I have known. And your… desire to explore and know and… to travel-" the Doctor paused, licking his lips. "When I'm with you, the stars are brighter. Everything is better. You make me better. In every possible way, you are equal to me, Rose Tyler, and in recognition of that truth, I offer you my hearts and my home, for as long as you wish to have them."
"You are the most brilliant person I've ever met," Rose said. She took a breath, knowing what she really had to say to be honest for this. "But you still make mistakes, sometimes huge ones. You fail, sometimes, and you aren't always right."
The Doctor stared at her, looking more than a little put-out.
"Neither am I," she said, and his look faded into understanding. "Both of us still have so much to learn about the universe. We can do that together and we'll do it smiling. You can always make me laugh. You're willing to listen to me and to question yourself on occasion. You saved me, Doctor, but I saved you, too. In… in every possible way, you are equal to me, and in recognition of that truth, I offer you my heart and everything I have, for as long as you wish."
He slid the circle of the bracelet onto her wrist and - she needn't have worried about the fit, because it tightened once it was all the way on - then he bent down, pressing his lips against the palm of her hand. His mouth was soft and cool, but it sent a shiver of heat through her body.
"If you like, you may give me a return gift at a time of your choosing," the Doctor said, straightening up. "If it's a bit of jewellery, like this, then I'm obligated to wear it, always. Anything else and I just have to keep it near me. It's your choice and there's no hurry - the ceremony doesn't require it."
She could feel the cool metal of the bracelet snug up against her wrist, like a second layer of skin. She reached down and brushed her fingers across it - it was so thin that she could barely feel all the tiny strands with her fingertips.
"Are you my husband now?" It was an odd thing to think about, really. Even in all her dreams of reuniting with the Doctor, she'd not thought much beyond the reunion itself and the resumption of their travelling ways. "Should I call you that?"
"The word is… as accurate as any," he said, sounding a bit shell-shocked, now that it was over. "As I said, that's the form of an ancient ceremony, one that my people didn't practice very much any more. Too many of them refused to think that even one of their own could be their equal."
"A whole planet full of people more arrogant than you," Rose said. "It's hard to imagine."
"Is this marital nagging?" the Doctor asked brightly, sounding rather intrigued. "Our conversations are going to be nothing but complaints now, I can sense it."
"They were nothing but complaints before," Rose said, tugging the Doctor toward her and into a kiss. His lips parted easily for her, his hands slipping behind her back to press her even closer. It was still a fairly innocent kiss, as far as Rose was concerned, but the Doctor was worth any sort of wait. When she pulled away from him, his eyes were closed and a smile curved up the corners of his mouth. "You see - nothing's changed."
The Doctor's eyelashes fluttered and then he slowly opened his eyes. "I think," he ventured, sounding a touch breathless, "that perhaps one small thing has changed."
"Small?" Rose smirked. "Don't underestimate yourself, Doctor."
She saw the Doctor's adam's apple - would it still be called that in an alien? - bob a bit as he swallowed hard at her teasing words. This was going to be so much fun.
"I think…" The Doctor swallowed again. "I think that we should have Christmas with the Joneses."
"It was March when I left Pete's world," Rose mentioned, amused at how quickly he was changing his mind about what he wanted to do. "I only just had Christmas."
"There's always room for another Christmas," the Doctor said firmly. His gaze skated over her nervously and then he turned back to the console, starting to shift things about. "Rose, why don't you hold down that button."
He pointed carelessly at the panel next to him. Rose shimmied up close, rubbing her arm against his as she pressed the button in question. He squeaked slightly and she couldn't hide her grin.
"I'm glad you're back," he said, leaning away from her to twist something. "I just… I thought I should say."
"Me, too," Rose said, holding on tight as the TARDIS shook. He looked over at her and, in some ways, it was like she'd never left - they still fit together so well - but in others, it was like it had never been before. He'd made a promise to her and the Doctor did his very best to keep his promises.
"Here we go - Christmas day!"
~The End~
Continue on to the next story in the series: Two Coins, Silver.