Fic: Veni, Vidi, Vici (1/6)
Title: Veni, Vidi, Vici (1/6)"(previously When in Rome)
Author: soniced_up
Pairing: Nine/Rose
Rating: PG for this part…maybe even G but it will go up later
Written for the time_and_chips Anywhere but Cardiff Ficathon
Prompt: Rome - Caesar’s era.
Spoilers: Unquiet Dead, End of the World. Nothing major though
Disclaimer: BBC owns Rose, the Doctor, the TARDIS and the concept…the OC’s are MINE! MUAHAHAHA..erm.
Author’s notes: First of all I have to thank measi for the wonderful beta read. It’s because of her that this fic is actually readable. Thanks a lot jennsthedevil for her support and suggestions, even if one of her suggestions did involve a banana being used in a very inappropriate fashion. Without her, this fic might have been scrapped on a couple of occasions. Thanks so much Hun. You mean the world to me.
Also this is the first multi-chapter fic I’ve ever written. I kinda doubt I’ll have all of it done by the 31st deadline, but I may surprise myself. I have the first two chapters ready to post, and the 3rd chapter almost ready to be beta’d. There are going to be 6 chapters and I hope to have at least 4 and 5 up by the deadline. I apologise mods, if it’s not done in time.
“Where have you been?” the Doctor asked. He watched as she stumbled into the console room, grabbing a hold of a support strut as the TARDIS shook through its dematerialization process.
“Where have I been?” Rose asked incredulously. “You all but chased me out of here a couple hours ago.” Something about having to recalibrate something or other and reversing the flow?” The TARDIS landed with a gentle thud, allowing Rose let go of the support strut and walked up to join the Doctor at the console. “You were in one of your moods, so I thought it best to leave you alone. I just went to my room and read the new Harry Potter novel that mum got me the last time we visited.”
“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that.” He flushed slightly with embarrassment, when he remembered how he had literally waved his sonic screwdriver at her and told her to get out of his hair so he could concentrate. “The old bird was being temperamental,” he said, stroking the console affectionately. “The Automatic Time Path Computer went all wonky…”
“Wonky? Is that a technical term?” Rose smiled at him, a teasing light dancing behind her eyes.
“Of course! Much more technical than hullabaloo, so you couldn’t possibly understand,” he teased back. He suddenly jumped into action, bouncing around the console, pulling levers and twisting knobs, locking down the TARDIS’ controls. “But she’s all better now. Good as new. And faster than expected because I just happen to be that brilliant.”
“So where are we then?” Rose asked cheekily, refusing to respond to the Doctor’s obvious compliment fishing.
A slightly hurt expression flitted across the Doctor’s face when he realized adulation would not be forthcoming. But he recovered quickly and flashed her a manic grin. “It’s a surprise,” he beamed.
“A surprise? Really?” She didn’t know quite how to respond to that. He had never surprised her before. Well ok, he surprised her all the time - but never intentionally. Well that probably wasn’t true either, but he certainly didn’t plan surprises designed solely to please her. She was almost afraid to ask. “Well?” she asked hesitantly, “What kind of surprise?”
The Doctor just rolled his eyes, and waved impatiently towards the doors. “Go on, take a look. You’re gonna love it.”
Rose stared at him for a moment, grinning. He was the picture of barely contained anticipation - like a bottle of shaken champagne at risk of exploding on its own if someone didn’t soon relieve the pressure.
It was contagious.
Throwing him a broad smile, she quickly ran down the ramp towards the door, but stopped with her hand resting on the doorknob as a thought occurred to her. She turned toward him, eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“Oh, no. I don’t think so.” She waved a finger at him in a manner that said ‘I’m on to you.’ “The last time you had me lead the way, without telling me where we were, I almost got eaten by the Texan.”
The Doctor looked confused for a moment before he remembered the incident and started chuckling. “Texalopherous,” he said, sniggering softly.
Crossing her arms across her chest, Rose arched an eyebrow and glared at him. “That’s what I said, Texan. Now, are you going to tell me where we are, or should I just go back to my room, and finish up with Harry and the gang?”
“The Texalopherous” he replied, emphasizing the creature’s correct name, “was not going to eat you Rose. They’re herbivores. No meat. The most it would have done is rip you to shreds with its claws,” he said, snickering. “But in her defence, you did almost step on her nest.”
“Well, I’m not the one who parked 2 feet away from her nest. I walk out, there with the promise of ” - she adopted a really bad northern accent, which the Doctor did not find amusing - “the most fantastic sunset in this and the surrounding three galaxies. And what do I get? This giant, scaly, foul smelling Texan…”
“Texalopherous.”
“Shut up.”
“Okay.”
“…Foul smelling Texan, screaming at me and lunging at me with its foul smelling mouth, gaping open. No meat, my arse. If you hadn’t pulled me back inside, she would’ve swallowed me whole.”
“Now Rose, be reasonable. You’re much too big for her to have swallowed whole.”
“OI!”
“All, I’m saying,” he said patiently, trying to keep the smirk off of his face, “is that if the Texalopherous had wanted to eat you, which it didn’t, it would’ve taken her at least two bites to finish you off completely.”
At the look of complete outrage on Rose’s face, the Doctor could no longer contain himself, and the console room was filled with the sound of his laughter. Having not been really mad at him to begin with, Rose’s bright giggle soon joined him. Before long the two of them were clutching their stomachs, tears streaming down their faces as they remembered the incident on Planet Bush.
“Rome,” the Doctor finally panted, clutching desperately at the console to keep himself upright.
“Wha’?” Rose managed through her diminishing giggles.
“That’s where we are. Rome.”
Suddenly the laughter stopped, and Rose looked at the Doctor, her big, brown eyes wide with excitement.
He had known about her current obsession with Rome for a couple weeks now. He had waited patiently for her to ask him to take her there, after he had caught her reading travel brochures she had obviously picked up on her last visit home. He’d even gone so far as to ask her on several occasions where she wanted to go, hoping she would tell him. But she always gave him the same answer, ‘you’re the designated driver, you decide’.
Finally he’d taken to leaving books on Rome from various time periods lying about to see which ones interested her most. He had even instructed the TARDIS to leave various Roman clothing and accessories easily visible in the wardrobe, to see if she would find them and play dress up like she sometimes did to amuse herself during the time spent floating in the vortex. The books had been gobbled up, and she had indeed spent some time playing in the wardrobe room, although he’d been quite disappointed when she wouldn’t come out to model what she’d found.
But she still hadn’t asked him to take her to Rome. Humans, he thought fondly. They could never just come out and say what they wanted. So he had taken it upon himself to chose the time in Roman history that he thought would interest her the most. He didn’t like guessing. What if he got it wrong? What if this want what she wanted at all? The fact that he was nervous enough to create butterflies low in his belly and make his palms itchy, and would be denied all the way to his dying day. His LAST dying day.
“Rome? As in the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Vatican?” With every name, Rose jumped up into the air, her voice rising higher.
“Yup,” the Doctor responded, quite relieved at her response. “I noticed your sudden interest in Rome, after your mate Shareen told you she was going there for holiday. Thought you’d like to see it for yourself.”
With a shriek of joy, she launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck in a fierce hug. He caught her and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her off the ground. He took a moment to enjoy the illicit feeling of her body pressed so intimately against his. And if she noticed when he buried his face in her hair, and breathed deeply of her scent - vanilla and mint - before setting her back on her feet, she didn’t say anything.
Releasing her, he propped a hip against the console, proudly crossing his arms and ankles as he watched her skip towards the door. This time she threw it open without hesitation and ran out into the warm sunshine. But after a few moments she came back inside, disappointment emanating from every pore.
”Umm, Doctor, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
“What do you mean it’s not what you had in mind,” the Doctor asked, sounding somewhat indignant. Oh please, don’t let me be wrong. He pushed past her out the door and moved around the small copse of trees behind which he had hidden the TARDIS . “Rose, this is Rome,” he proclaimed, gesturing out at the bustling market place spread out before them. “Well, Earth Rome anyway. 47 BC. The Roman Empire. Julius Caesar is the proclaimed Dictator for Life. This is Rome the way it was meant to be seen.”
He grinned manically at her, his eyes so full of his desire to please her. Rose was unable to do anything but shake her head and smile at him before turning to head back into the TARDIS.
“Oi, where are you going?” the Doctor asked, confused, as he followed close on her heels.
“Well I can’t exactly go out there dressed like this, can I?” She gestured at her jeans and t-shirt.
“The TARDIS will help me find something suitable, won’t you girl?”
The Doctor watched as she gently stroked a hand across one of the support struts, and couldn’t keep the scowl off of his face when his ships hum changed pitch to what could only be described as a tone of female solidarity.
“Be back in a mo’,” she called over her shoulder as she exited the console room.
With an exasperated sigh, the Doctor threw himself into the captain’s chair, crossing his legs on the central console.
“Be back in a mo’,” he mimicked. “My arse. The last time she said that to me, kept me waiting for almost two hours, she did.” Crossing his arms across his chest, he settled himself for a good long wait. “What is it with you women anyway? Always needing to preen.” He felt the TARDIS send him a spike of disapproval. “Well ok, not you,” he conceded. “You’re beautiful just as you are, and you know it - but every other woman of every other species I’ve ever met, they’re all the same. They have to have their hair and make up just so. They have to have the latest fashions. Why is that? Seems like more of a fuss than it’s worth if you ask me.”
Suddenly a picture of Rose wearing a familiar off-the-shoulder Victorian gown with black lace bodice and straight wine coloured skirt filled his mind. He closed his eyes and remembered how the cloak she had worn with it would only afford him the tiniest glimpse of her creamy skin, and then later, when she had gotten to warm and had taken the concealing cloak off, all that soft, tempting Rose flesh on display.
With a groan he tore himself out of his musings and glared at the TARDIS.
“Alright, fine. Point taken. That’s why they do it.”
Hoisting himself to his feet, he pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and crawled beneath the console.
“Might as well do something useful while I wait.”
XxXxXxXx
An hour and ten minutes later, the Doctor silently cheered when he heard soft footsteps making their way towards the console room. He turned the sonic screwdriver off with a flourish and put it back in his jacket pocket before pulling himself out from under the console. He turned towards the inner door just as Rose entered the room.
He was rendered speechless.
What a vision she was. He thought the Victorian dress had made her look beautiful, but now she looked like a Roman Goddess. She was a Roman Goddess. She wore a wine coloured tunic fastened at intervals over her shoulders and arms, with small gold and ruby pins, each fashioned in the shape of a rose. The floor-length tunic had a wide gold border at the neck, sleeves and hem. A matching gold ribbon belted the garment just below her breasts. Over top of the tunic she wore a cream coloured stola wrapped around her body and over her shoulder. It had gold thread woven throughout, giving it a shimmering quality. Around her neck she wore a wide gold necklace, which was etched with ornate patterns and held a large ruby in its centre. Her ears were adorned with matching ruby earrings. A gold armlet, fashioned to look like a snake coiled intimately around her left upper arm. Her blonde hair was fashioned in a series of twisted braids that were coiled on the back of her head and held in place with two gold pins that matched the ones on her tunic.
“Doctor?” Rose’s hesitant voice cut through the fog that had settled over his brain.
“Hmm? Wha? OH, hello.”
“You’re staring. Is this ok?”
“It’s more than ok. You’re gorgeous.”
“For a human, right?” Rose bowed her head bashfully, but she couldn’t stop the smile his words evoked.
“Not at all.” He walked up the ramp to her and took both of her hands in his. “You’d put Cleopatra to shame,” he said softly.
His laser blue eyes bore into her soft brown ones unable or unwilling to look away. He held her gaze for what felt like minutes, but was probably only seconds. And that confused him. How could this stupid little ape make him, a Time Lord, lose track of time? And it was happening more and more often - one minute they would be best mates laughing and joking their way across time and space, and the next minute they would touch unexpectedly, or a look would pass between them, and everything would freeze. His hearts would speed up, his respiration would turn shallow and his entire being would be focused in on her. This had never happened to him before. It should not have been possible. He was a Time Lord. She was just a human. He shouldn’t be fa…
“So!” he said a little too loudly, forcing himself to break that train of thought. He dropped her hands and headed towards the door. “Ready to go now?”
“Uh, yeah I guess so,” she responded weakly, sounding a little out of breath.
The Doctor kept his back to her, but the tension went out of his shoulders and he smiled softly. He didn’t like where his thoughts had been headed. He didn’t like how this whole situation screamed ‘domestic’. He really didn’t like the effect this little human girl had on him. But he seemed unable to fight it and for some reason that he was completely unwilling to analyse, it made him feel better knowing she was equally affected by him as he was by her.
“But wait,” she called after him. “Aren’t you gonna get changed? I mean, if you go out like that you’re likely to start a riot, you are.”
“Don’t be silly,” he said, turning around to face her. “I picked this outfit so I could blend in anywhere. No one had a problem with it in 1869 Cardiff.”
“That was 1869 Cardiff. This is, what did you say? 44 BC. As in Before Christ. Bit of a difference there.”
“I know what BC stands for, Rose.”
“Seriously though Doctor, the TARDIS picked out a perfectly nice toga for you to wear. It’s hanging up just inside the wardrobe room.”
Rose was grinning now, her tongue slipping out to toy at the corner of her mouth.
“I’m not wearing a toga, Rose.” Obviously the idea amused her. So not going to happen.
“Come on. Where’s your sense of adventure?” She poked him in the chest, grinning from ear to ear.
“Excuse me? Where’s my sense of adventure? Time Lord, Rose. Travel through time and space I do. I think I have more of a ‘sense of adventure’ than anyone you’ve ever met.” He pulled himself to his full height and gave her his best insulted face.
“Ok, the toga shouldn’t be a problem for ‘ya then. Or are you afraid to show a little leg? With all the runnin’ we do, I’m sure they’re very nice legs. Strong, muscular legs. Oh wait a minute. Are they hairy?” Her tongue poked out between her teeth as her grin got even bigger.
“OI! My legs aren’t hairy. Well, not very hairy at any rate. But that’s not the point. I have no intention of walking around wearing a bed sheet wrapped around my body. Now come on, let’s go see what kind of trouble we can get into.” With that, he turned and strode purposefully out of the TARDIS.
Jogging slightly to catch up with his long strides, Rose linked her arm with his and beamed up at him.
“20 quid says I see you in a toga before we leave ancient Rome.”
The Doctor cocked an eyebrow and looked down at her with a smirk, shaking his head.
“If you’re so eager to part with your money, far be if for me to try and stop you. I’ll take that bet Rose Tyler.”
“Oh, you’re goin’ down, Time Lord.”
Laughing, the two of them entered the market, eager to discover what ancient Rome had to offer them.
Part 2