Don't Blink - 23/?
Title: Don't Blink - 23/?
Characters: Rose, Ten
Summary: AU. What if Rose had stayed through Doomsday and was the one to end up in 1969 with the Doctor? How would they get back to their proper time? Would they want to?
Rating: PG
Beta: At least once a week I can't believe my good fortune on having nattieb as a friend and beta. She is amazing.
ch 1. ch 2. ch 3. ch 4. ch 5. ch 6. ch 7. ch 8. ch 9. ch 10. ch 11. ch 12
. ch 13. ch 14. ch 15. ch 16. ch 17. ch 18. ch 19. ch 20. ch 21. ch 22
It had been a long day. Rose found herself stuck with all the drudgery - cleaning, shopping, cooking - while the Doctor sat with Billy and brainstormed ideas. She had never come so close to giving the Doctor a good smack as she had that night, when she had thrust a glass of water at him. He had been talking nearly non-stop for several hours, an amazing feat even for him, and his voice had started to crack. He’d taken the glass without looking at her, drained it dry, and handed it back to her while still talking to Billy and tracing a diagram of something on a piece of paper.
Rose threw the glass at him - lightly - and left the flat, slamming the door in time to hear him say, “Ow!”
“What’s wrong with you?” Jeff asked as she stormed by his door.
“Go to hell,” she tossed over her shoulder, and kept going.
“Oh, ho!” He closed his door and followed her, nimbly tripping down the steps. “You and the mister have a fight?”
Rose glared at him. “The trouble is, I forgot that he’s a man. And men are stupid.”
“Preaching to the choir there, love.” Jeff folded his arms and surveyed the street they were standing on. “You look a bit steamed. Fancy a drink to help you calm down?”
Rose suddenly remembered where she was. Thankfully, she had her shoes on, and her clothes were clean, but her bag was back in the flat.
“I don’t have any money. My bag’s inside.”
“You were that mad, eh?” Jeff shook his head. “I’m buying.”
Rose hesitated only for a moment. “Okay.”
The pub was full of people. Saturday meant a night out for many, and Rose was only sorry that she’d waited so long and spent the day doing all the boring domestic stuff instead of relaxing.
“So what’s going on?” Jeff asked after they’d grabbed a small table and he’d brought back drinks for both of them. “It’s not like you to be so angry. Every time I see the two of you, it’s happiness and sunshine.”
Rose frowned and bit her lip. Her anger had largely disappeared, but she was still upset at being taken for granted. Maybe that’s what doing domestic really did to a person. Maybe that was why the Doctor tried so hard to avoid it.
“The Doctor’s working on a project,” she said finally. “With...a colleague. And they sort of forgot that I was there.”
“My dad used to get that way,” Jeff said sympathetically. “He loved his work. He had his own company,” he explained when Rose looked puzzled. “Could never leave work at the office. Drove my mum mad.”
“The Doctor’s not always like this.” Rose felt the need to defend him. “This is really important. Really, really important - to both of us. There’s just so much to do.”
“A lot of details.” Jeff nodded, probably picturing some sort of scientific experiment being conducted in the middle of the flat. For a moment, Rose envied him his lack of knowledge. She wondered what his reaction would be if she explained to him what was really going on.
“The trouble with this project is that it’s too much, too soon.” Rose tossed back the last of her drink, a harmless glass of ale that tasted awful. It suited her current mood perfectly. “There are so many things to be worked out that I don’t see how it can all get done.”
“Yeah, but if he’s got that friend of yours to help out it shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Jeff righted the chips basket that Rose had dislodged as she set her glass down. “He a scientist, too?”
“Well, the Doctor’s the brains of the whole thing,” she admitted. “Billy and I are just...accessories.”
“You’re more than that,” Jeff protested.
“But I’m not. Not really. The Doctor’s the one who makes the decisions and comes up with all the brilliant ideas. I’m just the, the sidekick.”
“That’s an odd way for you to describe yourself.” Jeff smiled a puzzled smile. “Isn’t marriage supposed to be a partnership?”
A girl’s voice interrupted, saving Rose from having to answer. “What’s supposed to be a partnership?”
Jeff and Rose turned to see Kitty standing there. She was dressed in a slinky black dress, very high heels, and full makeup. She smiled at Jeff.
“Hi, there.”
He stood up so fast that he knocked his chair back. “Hi. What are you doing here?”
“Stopped by with some friends before dinner.” She smiled again. “Is there room for me for a quick drink?”
“Absolutely.” Jeff beamed at her. Rose shrugged indifferently, but neither one paid any attention to her.
“I’ll just go tell my friends I’ll be over here for a bit. Watch my bag?” Kitty set down her bag and disappeared back into the throng of people surrounding the bar.
“You don’t mind, do you, Rose?” Jeff asked belatedly. Seeing Kitty had made him forget his manners.
Rose shook her head. “Of course not. Glad she’s talking to you.”
“She’s still driving me crazy,” he confessed. “She won’t return my phone calls, won’t agree to come out with me again, but when we bump into each other she’s friendly and encouraging. I’m starting to think she’s leading me on. What is it with you women?”
“Maybe she just doesn’t want to be so accommodating,” Rose suggested. “Maybe she knows you’ll take her for granted.”
“Are you projecting, by any chance?” he wanted to know. “Look, Rose, I know that John - and one day you’ll have to tell me why you call him ‘the Doctor’, it’s like an old movie where the woman always calls her husband by his surname - thinks the world of you. You’re not just an accessory. It’s ridiculous.”
“But I’m not really doing anything.” Rose leaned forward, shoving the basket of chips out of her way. “He doesn’t need me, he can do it all himself. He’s been by himself for years and years. What if he looks at me one day and decides that he’s tired of me? What if this doesn’t work and there’s no way home? What do I do then?”
“You go home, Rose,” Jeff said gently. “With him. It’s where you belong.”
“What do you think you’re doing?” a voice demanded.
Startled, Rose looked up and around. The Doctor stood over her, arms folded and mouth set in a line. On his temple was a red mark, a souvenir of the glass that she’d thrown at him. Despite herself Rose giggled.
“What happened to your head?” Jeff wanted to know, and the Doctor fixed him with a glare.
“It connected with a water glass.” He spoke through clenched teeth. “Rose?”
She stayed put, ignoring the implied request to go with him. “Yeah?”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t throw things at me and then leave.”
“Would you rather I threw things at you and stayed?” she suggested.
“You know that’s not what I meant!” he snapped.
“Should I have stayed to clean up the mess?” she asked sweetly.
The Doctor stared at her, anger rising visibly. Before he could open his mouth, Jeff interrupted.
“Sorry, that’s my fault. Ran into her out on the street and insisted she keep me company. But Kitty’s here now, and she’s feeling friendly, so I’ll just leave you two alone, shall I?”
He picked up Kitty’s bag and left. Rose and the Doctor continued to stare at one another.
“Have you been drinking?” he asked finally, rubbing the back of his neck and taking in the glasses on the table.
“Maybe.” Her tone was belligerent, and she folded her arms across her chest, daring him to object.
She was disappointed when he didn’t take the bait and reprimand her for drinking. He sighed. “Will you come home with me?”
She thought for a minute, eyes on the ceiling. “No.”
“No? No?” His voice rose in outraged confusion. “Why not?”
“Because you were ignoring me.”
He stared at her in open-mouthed confusion. “How was I ignoring you?”
“You and Billy were busy. All day. I did the cleaning and the shopping and laundry - your laundry that you won’t even wear because you won’t take off that stupid suit - and you just sat around and drew pictures all day.”
He shook his head to clear it. “I never asked you to do all those things,” he pointed out. “You chose to.”
“If I don’t do them, they don’t get done!” she said angrily.
“It was your choice!” His voice raised in anger, and several people turned around to look at them. He scowled at the onlookers until they turned away again and then looked back at Rose.
“They had to get done!” Her voice raised, still sounding furious, and she didn’t care that they were repeating themselves like children in a petty quarrel.
“You can’t get angry at me because you did them!”
“No,” she threw at him, “but I can get angry at you because you never will. If you do those things you’re admitting that we’re never leaving, aren’t you?”
The words hung there in the air between them. Rose had the sudden, odd sensation of knowing that she was absolutely, totally correct. The frozen look on his face told her she was right.
“I’m not having this conversation in a pub,” the Doctor said after a long pause. “Are you coming with me or not?”
Rose surveyed her options. They were pretty limited, since her bag was still back at the flat.
“I’m coming,” she muttered, and stood up, pausing to finish the last of Jeff’s ale.
The Doctor shook his head, knowing perfectly well that she had little tolerance for alcohol. “Come on.”
When they stepped outside Rose saw that it was night. The streets were bustling and people came and went with the same energy that Rose remembered from the London of her time. They walked along in silence for a while, Rose sulking and the Doctor with his hands in his pockets.
They passed the flat and kept going. Rose let the Doctor lead the way, not caring where they were headed. He stopped a few streets away from home, stepping down a dark alley and turning to face her.
“Well?”
“Well what?” Rose heard the wavering in her voice and thought that maybe drinking so much wasn’t the best idea.
He spread his arms out. “Well, let it out. All the ways that I have wronged you. Let’s hear it.”
She stared at him in bafflement. “How you’ve wronged me?”
“I took you away from home and stole a year from your life. I’ve put you in danger too many times to count. You’ll never see your mother again because of me,” he chanted. “We’re trapped in the past with no way out. You’re not mad about the housekeeping. You’re mad at me because you’re trapped here.”
“No. No! That’s not it!” She was shocked and distressed that he would think that.
He wasn’t convinced. “No? Then why don’t you tell me, Rose, so I don’t risk another glass being thrown at my head.” His hand came up to point at the mark on his forehead.
She winced. “I’m sorry about that.”
“No, you’re not. You don’t do things you don’t mean. You don’t say things you don’t mean. You’re compulsively honest to a fault. So tell me what’s wrong, Rose.” He stepped closer, looming over her in the darkness.
The words bubbled up on their own. Rose hadn’t known how she felt until she heard herself speak.
“We’re stuck here together, and there’s nowhere for you to go to avoid me. We’ve never had to be so close for so long before. We’ve kissed. We’ve kissed twice. Twice! You’re not possessed and you’re not dying, and it was for real. It felt real to me.” Embarrassingly, mortifyingly, her voice cracked.
“It was real,” he said quietly. “It was real.”
“It’s...it’s not right that you can kiss me the way you kiss me and then not mention it again. It’s not fair.”
“Do you want me to apologize?” He had no idea what she wanted him to do. The feeling threw him off balance.
“No, I don’t want you to apologize!” Her voice echoed down the alley. “I want you to do it again!”
He was gaping at her. “You...you want me to kiss you again?”
“Very much. But I want you to mean it,” Rose added, and she felt so vulnerable now, so afraid that he would willfully misinterpret what she was saying in order to avoid the entire situation.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said softly. “I don’t want you to do something because you think you have to. I don’t want you to think that you have no choice because we’re trapped here.”
Rose laughed softly. “I haven’t had a choice for a long time, Doctor.”
He reached out and touched her hair, winding a lock of it around his finger.
“I would very much like to kiss you again, Rose.”
She smiled and then frowned, her attention caught by the red mark on his head.
“Does it hurt very much?”
“My head,” he assured her as he slid his arms around her, “is pounding. You have very good aim.”
“We should get-”
What she thought they should get was left unspoken. He covered her mouth with his, and she hung on to his shoulders and kissed him back as hard as he was kissing her.
“Finally!” Billy glared at them from where he stood in the living room. “Where did you go?”
“Sorry, Billy,” the Doctor apologized. “I had to find Rose.”
Billy didn’t look impressed. “So I see. Any new marks?”
“Marks of what?” Rose asked in confusion.
“Marks of violence. On either of you,” he added. “You threw a glass at him and left. It was unprovoked. He tore after you in a rage. Where I come from that’s domestic violence.”
“No more violence,” the Doctor said firmly. “Domestic or otherwise.”
“So now everything’s fine and happy again, is it?”
They considered the question for a moment before nodding in unison.
Billy eyed their hands, twined together, and shook his head. “I don’t know what’s going on with you two, and I don’t care.” He shook a piece of paper at the Doctor. “You do realize that this is talking about DVDs? They haven’t been invented yet! I’m going to have to wait for most of my life before we can even begin!”
The Doctor smiled a patronizing smile that made Billy long to hit him.
“Billy, Billy, Billy. I have it all well in hand. Believe me when I say that I have a plan.”
Twenty-four
Characters: Rose, Ten
Summary: AU. What if Rose had stayed through Doomsday and was the one to end up in 1969 with the Doctor? How would they get back to their proper time? Would they want to?
Rating: PG
Beta: At least once a week I can't believe my good fortune on having nattieb as a friend and beta. She is amazing.
ch 1. ch 2. ch 3. ch 4. ch 5. ch 6. ch 7. ch 8. ch 9. ch 10. ch 11. ch 12
. ch 13. ch 14. ch 15. ch 16. ch 17. ch 18. ch 19. ch 20. ch 21. ch 22
It had been a long day. Rose found herself stuck with all the drudgery - cleaning, shopping, cooking - while the Doctor sat with Billy and brainstormed ideas. She had never come so close to giving the Doctor a good smack as she had that night, when she had thrust a glass of water at him. He had been talking nearly non-stop for several hours, an amazing feat even for him, and his voice had started to crack. He’d taken the glass without looking at her, drained it dry, and handed it back to her while still talking to Billy and tracing a diagram of something on a piece of paper.
Rose threw the glass at him - lightly - and left the flat, slamming the door in time to hear him say, “Ow!”
“What’s wrong with you?” Jeff asked as she stormed by his door.
“Go to hell,” she tossed over her shoulder, and kept going.
“Oh, ho!” He closed his door and followed her, nimbly tripping down the steps. “You and the mister have a fight?”
Rose glared at him. “The trouble is, I forgot that he’s a man. And men are stupid.”
“Preaching to the choir there, love.” Jeff folded his arms and surveyed the street they were standing on. “You look a bit steamed. Fancy a drink to help you calm down?”
Rose suddenly remembered where she was. Thankfully, she had her shoes on, and her clothes were clean, but her bag was back in the flat.
“I don’t have any money. My bag’s inside.”
“You were that mad, eh?” Jeff shook his head. “I’m buying.”
Rose hesitated only for a moment. “Okay.”
The pub was full of people. Saturday meant a night out for many, and Rose was only sorry that she’d waited so long and spent the day doing all the boring domestic stuff instead of relaxing.
“So what’s going on?” Jeff asked after they’d grabbed a small table and he’d brought back drinks for both of them. “It’s not like you to be so angry. Every time I see the two of you, it’s happiness and sunshine.”
Rose frowned and bit her lip. Her anger had largely disappeared, but she was still upset at being taken for granted. Maybe that’s what doing domestic really did to a person. Maybe that was why the Doctor tried so hard to avoid it.
“The Doctor’s working on a project,” she said finally. “With...a colleague. And they sort of forgot that I was there.”
“My dad used to get that way,” Jeff said sympathetically. “He loved his work. He had his own company,” he explained when Rose looked puzzled. “Could never leave work at the office. Drove my mum mad.”
“The Doctor’s not always like this.” Rose felt the need to defend him. “This is really important. Really, really important - to both of us. There’s just so much to do.”
“A lot of details.” Jeff nodded, probably picturing some sort of scientific experiment being conducted in the middle of the flat. For a moment, Rose envied him his lack of knowledge. She wondered what his reaction would be if she explained to him what was really going on.
“The trouble with this project is that it’s too much, too soon.” Rose tossed back the last of her drink, a harmless glass of ale that tasted awful. It suited her current mood perfectly. “There are so many things to be worked out that I don’t see how it can all get done.”
“Yeah, but if he’s got that friend of yours to help out it shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Jeff righted the chips basket that Rose had dislodged as she set her glass down. “He a scientist, too?”
“Well, the Doctor’s the brains of the whole thing,” she admitted. “Billy and I are just...accessories.”
“You’re more than that,” Jeff protested.
“But I’m not. Not really. The Doctor’s the one who makes the decisions and comes up with all the brilliant ideas. I’m just the, the sidekick.”
“That’s an odd way for you to describe yourself.” Jeff smiled a puzzled smile. “Isn’t marriage supposed to be a partnership?”
A girl’s voice interrupted, saving Rose from having to answer. “What’s supposed to be a partnership?”
Jeff and Rose turned to see Kitty standing there. She was dressed in a slinky black dress, very high heels, and full makeup. She smiled at Jeff.
“Hi, there.”
He stood up so fast that he knocked his chair back. “Hi. What are you doing here?”
“Stopped by with some friends before dinner.” She smiled again. “Is there room for me for a quick drink?”
“Absolutely.” Jeff beamed at her. Rose shrugged indifferently, but neither one paid any attention to her.
“I’ll just go tell my friends I’ll be over here for a bit. Watch my bag?” Kitty set down her bag and disappeared back into the throng of people surrounding the bar.
“You don’t mind, do you, Rose?” Jeff asked belatedly. Seeing Kitty had made him forget his manners.
Rose shook her head. “Of course not. Glad she’s talking to you.”
“She’s still driving me crazy,” he confessed. “She won’t return my phone calls, won’t agree to come out with me again, but when we bump into each other she’s friendly and encouraging. I’m starting to think she’s leading me on. What is it with you women?”
“Maybe she just doesn’t want to be so accommodating,” Rose suggested. “Maybe she knows you’ll take her for granted.”
“Are you projecting, by any chance?” he wanted to know. “Look, Rose, I know that John - and one day you’ll have to tell me why you call him ‘the Doctor’, it’s like an old movie where the woman always calls her husband by his surname - thinks the world of you. You’re not just an accessory. It’s ridiculous.”
“But I’m not really doing anything.” Rose leaned forward, shoving the basket of chips out of her way. “He doesn’t need me, he can do it all himself. He’s been by himself for years and years. What if he looks at me one day and decides that he’s tired of me? What if this doesn’t work and there’s no way home? What do I do then?”
“You go home, Rose,” Jeff said gently. “With him. It’s where you belong.”
“What do you think you’re doing?” a voice demanded.
Startled, Rose looked up and around. The Doctor stood over her, arms folded and mouth set in a line. On his temple was a red mark, a souvenir of the glass that she’d thrown at him. Despite herself Rose giggled.
“What happened to your head?” Jeff wanted to know, and the Doctor fixed him with a glare.
“It connected with a water glass.” He spoke through clenched teeth. “Rose?”
She stayed put, ignoring the implied request to go with him. “Yeah?”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t throw things at me and then leave.”
“Would you rather I threw things at you and stayed?” she suggested.
“You know that’s not what I meant!” he snapped.
“Should I have stayed to clean up the mess?” she asked sweetly.
The Doctor stared at her, anger rising visibly. Before he could open his mouth, Jeff interrupted.
“Sorry, that’s my fault. Ran into her out on the street and insisted she keep me company. But Kitty’s here now, and she’s feeling friendly, so I’ll just leave you two alone, shall I?”
He picked up Kitty’s bag and left. Rose and the Doctor continued to stare at one another.
“Have you been drinking?” he asked finally, rubbing the back of his neck and taking in the glasses on the table.
“Maybe.” Her tone was belligerent, and she folded her arms across her chest, daring him to object.
She was disappointed when he didn’t take the bait and reprimand her for drinking. He sighed. “Will you come home with me?”
She thought for a minute, eyes on the ceiling. “No.”
“No? No?” His voice rose in outraged confusion. “Why not?”
“Because you were ignoring me.”
He stared at her in open-mouthed confusion. “How was I ignoring you?”
“You and Billy were busy. All day. I did the cleaning and the shopping and laundry - your laundry that you won’t even wear because you won’t take off that stupid suit - and you just sat around and drew pictures all day.”
He shook his head to clear it. “I never asked you to do all those things,” he pointed out. “You chose to.”
“If I don’t do them, they don’t get done!” she said angrily.
“It was your choice!” His voice raised in anger, and several people turned around to look at them. He scowled at the onlookers until they turned away again and then looked back at Rose.
“They had to get done!” Her voice raised, still sounding furious, and she didn’t care that they were repeating themselves like children in a petty quarrel.
“You can’t get angry at me because you did them!”
“No,” she threw at him, “but I can get angry at you because you never will. If you do those things you’re admitting that we’re never leaving, aren’t you?”
The words hung there in the air between them. Rose had the sudden, odd sensation of knowing that she was absolutely, totally correct. The frozen look on his face told her she was right.
“I’m not having this conversation in a pub,” the Doctor said after a long pause. “Are you coming with me or not?”
Rose surveyed her options. They were pretty limited, since her bag was still back at the flat.
“I’m coming,” she muttered, and stood up, pausing to finish the last of Jeff’s ale.
The Doctor shook his head, knowing perfectly well that she had little tolerance for alcohol. “Come on.”
When they stepped outside Rose saw that it was night. The streets were bustling and people came and went with the same energy that Rose remembered from the London of her time. They walked along in silence for a while, Rose sulking and the Doctor with his hands in his pockets.
They passed the flat and kept going. Rose let the Doctor lead the way, not caring where they were headed. He stopped a few streets away from home, stepping down a dark alley and turning to face her.
“Well?”
“Well what?” Rose heard the wavering in her voice and thought that maybe drinking so much wasn’t the best idea.
He spread his arms out. “Well, let it out. All the ways that I have wronged you. Let’s hear it.”
She stared at him in bafflement. “How you’ve wronged me?”
“I took you away from home and stole a year from your life. I’ve put you in danger too many times to count. You’ll never see your mother again because of me,” he chanted. “We’re trapped in the past with no way out. You’re not mad about the housekeeping. You’re mad at me because you’re trapped here.”
“No. No! That’s not it!” She was shocked and distressed that he would think that.
He wasn’t convinced. “No? Then why don’t you tell me, Rose, so I don’t risk another glass being thrown at my head.” His hand came up to point at the mark on his forehead.
She winced. “I’m sorry about that.”
“No, you’re not. You don’t do things you don’t mean. You don’t say things you don’t mean. You’re compulsively honest to a fault. So tell me what’s wrong, Rose.” He stepped closer, looming over her in the darkness.
The words bubbled up on their own. Rose hadn’t known how she felt until she heard herself speak.
“We’re stuck here together, and there’s nowhere for you to go to avoid me. We’ve never had to be so close for so long before. We’ve kissed. We’ve kissed twice. Twice! You’re not possessed and you’re not dying, and it was for real. It felt real to me.” Embarrassingly, mortifyingly, her voice cracked.
“It was real,” he said quietly. “It was real.”
“It’s...it’s not right that you can kiss me the way you kiss me and then not mention it again. It’s not fair.”
“Do you want me to apologize?” He had no idea what she wanted him to do. The feeling threw him off balance.
“No, I don’t want you to apologize!” Her voice echoed down the alley. “I want you to do it again!”
He was gaping at her. “You...you want me to kiss you again?”
“Very much. But I want you to mean it,” Rose added, and she felt so vulnerable now, so afraid that he would willfully misinterpret what she was saying in order to avoid the entire situation.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said softly. “I don’t want you to do something because you think you have to. I don’t want you to think that you have no choice because we’re trapped here.”
Rose laughed softly. “I haven’t had a choice for a long time, Doctor.”
He reached out and touched her hair, winding a lock of it around his finger.
“I would very much like to kiss you again, Rose.”
She smiled and then frowned, her attention caught by the red mark on his head.
“Does it hurt very much?”
“My head,” he assured her as he slid his arms around her, “is pounding. You have very good aim.”
“We should get-”
What she thought they should get was left unspoken. He covered her mouth with his, and she hung on to his shoulders and kissed him back as hard as he was kissing her.
“Finally!” Billy glared at them from where he stood in the living room. “Where did you go?”
“Sorry, Billy,” the Doctor apologized. “I had to find Rose.”
Billy didn’t look impressed. “So I see. Any new marks?”
“Marks of what?” Rose asked in confusion.
“Marks of violence. On either of you,” he added. “You threw a glass at him and left. It was unprovoked. He tore after you in a rage. Where I come from that’s domestic violence.”
“No more violence,” the Doctor said firmly. “Domestic or otherwise.”
“So now everything’s fine and happy again, is it?”
They considered the question for a moment before nodding in unison.
Billy eyed their hands, twined together, and shook his head. “I don’t know what’s going on with you two, and I don’t care.” He shook a piece of paper at the Doctor. “You do realize that this is talking about DVDs? They haven’t been invented yet! I’m going to have to wait for most of my life before we can even begin!”
The Doctor smiled a patronizing smile that made Billy long to hit him.
“Billy, Billy, Billy. I have it all well in hand. Believe me when I say that I have a plan.”
Twenty-four