Ten x Rose
Rated T
Telepathy (telepathic marriage bond)
Angst
Fluffy laughter
Not exactly a rewrite
Dimension Hopping Rose
JE fixit
Happy ending!
Beta’d by the ever fabulous MrsBertucci
AO3 and TSP and on Tumblr Chapter 1 and (the corrected!) 2 and 3
Part of the The Adventures of Bad Wolf and the TARDIS…and their Doctor series
…wait for you
“I want to talk to Rose.” Martha crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.
The Doctor eyed her and wondered if he needed to step out of arm’s length. He shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. He could still see the Dalek disappearing, blinking out of this time and into—another.
One. All it takes is one.
“What?” He demanded. “Why?” Then he shook his head. “You can’t. It’s not like there’s a phone line between here and—and, well, her. We share a telepathic connection, you can’t just tap into it like a party line!”
“Then I want you to tell her this from me and I want you to tell her exactly. You understand me, mister?”
He leaned back slightly, just in case Martha’s version of talk was in any way similar to Jackie’s. True, his mother-in-law had only slapped him that once, but it was a memorable once. “What is it?”
“No. I want you to promise me first.”
Against his better judgement the Doctor felt his head nodding as if he always planned to agree to Martha’s request. The TARDIS hummed encouragingly in the back of his mind, but Martha nodded as if his ship spoke to her. Eyeing the Time Rotor as if it personally affronted him, he looked back to Martha.
“All right. I promise.”
“I want you to tell Rose to smack you one.”
“What?” He yelped. “I’m not telling her—”
“And I want you to tell her why,” Martha continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “I want you to tell her about that stupid stunt you pulled in the theater with the Daleks. Trying to get yourself killed you were! And then what? What would I do in 1930 New York? Assuming the Daleks didn’t kill me, too! Kill all of us. The entire world! Stranded there—or even in here with the TARDIS, if I managed to make it back, I wouldn’t be able to fly Her.”
The TARDIS hummed again as if to say of course She’d let Martha fly her home, or activate the emergency program to take her home again. Martha glanced at the Time Rotor, a slight smile twitching her lips, but almost immediately looked at him again. Well, glared at him again.
The Doctor opened his mouth then snapped it closed. “Rose is taking a test now,” he hedged.
“I’m sure you’ll still be awake when she’s finished.”
“Martha, I wouldn’t have—the TARDIS, She’d have taken you home.”
Martha didn’t look convinced, her gaze flicking from him to the Time Rotor and back again. “Hmm. I’m showering—another lovely walk through the sewers, thank you—and sleeping.” She spun on her heel and stalked off. “You better tell Rose!”
The Doctor had no such plans, of course. He was not about to tell his wife he had a moment of weakness and willingly gave himself up to the Daleks as sort of a sacrificial lamb. Or Time Lord. Sacrificial Time Lord. That instead of keeping the flame of hope alive, the one Rose seemed to nourish so effortlessly, he let it splutter and die. Martha was right—he deserved a slap.
Not for offering his life to the Daleks—well all right that, too—but for not believing in Rose.
“I believe in you,” he told her. “I believe in us.”
“What are the universal coordinates of the Cardiff rift?” Rose asked, clearly distracted. “And the Earth ones, too, just in case.”
“Are you thinking of using the rift to link universes?” he asked, grateful as ever to talk shop and not the foolishness of his own grief and loneliness.
“That’s part of Mickey’s theory,” Rose agreed. “But I don’t think the rifts act like a wormhole. They’re just energy, yeah? Like they take the energy from the Earth and the universe and amplify it?”
“More or less, yes.” He tugged his ear and stood next to her at her desk in their bedroom. Looking over her proverbial shoulder, he studied the calculations she and Mr. Mickey had worked out.
It’d taken a while before they strengthened their bond enough to ‘see’ through the other’s eyes, but desperation begat necessity—or something like that.
“Move your hand, love.” He settled his own hands on her shoulders and worked out the knots tightening her muscles. Rose sighed into his touch, melting into his chest as easily as their minds linked to each other’s.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
The Doctor kissed the top of her head and continued to study her notes, though he already read them twice and calculated five different ways her plan to cross universes could go wrong. And by wrong he meant splatting Rose into the universal walls or losing herself in the Void or being torn apart by gravimetric waves.
The horrors of his own fears danced through his mind. Unable to look at her, he took her pen and scratched out several calculations and wrote in his own.
“This still won’t work,” he warned and retuned his hands to her shoulders, digging his thumbs into her muscles. “The walls are still closed and punching through these pinpricks is a surefire way to destroy all of creation.”
“Hmm.” Rose sighed and tilted her head to look at him. “I’m not looking to destroy the world or recreate the Big Bang, ta. I just want to make sure, when the time’s right, I can jump through.”
He leaned down and kissed her. “And when you do, my hearts, I’ll be here waiting for you.”
“Doctor?” Rose stood and her work papers faded away, replaced by the gentle hum of the TARDIS and the soothing beat of her strong, Human, heart.
“I—it’s been hard. Here, alone.”
“Martha?” Rose asked, sharp and slightly afraid.
“She’s still here,” he rushed to assure her. “But—well—” he didn’t want to, but ended up hurriedly telling her about the Daleks and falling into despair. “You’re so strong, Rose. I thought—well, I thought I could go on like before. Just traveling, me and the TARDIS, and it wouldn’t be any different. But—it’s not—I mean it is, different I mean. Not the same.”
“I told you I didn’t want you marrying all your companions,” she admonished. But her hand was soft on his cheek and her lips gentle on his.
“It’s different,” he admitted. “I know you’re alive and we share our minds, and our link, and I thought that’d be enough.”
“What makes you think it’s enough for me?” Now her voice was sharp, angry.
The Doctor opened his mouth then immediately snapped it closed. “It’s not,” he realized. “I mean I knew that but—and you have your family and I guess—well, I guess I hoped you…”
“That I what? Didn’t need you to breathe because I had Mum and Mickey and little Tony? Because I returned to school?”
“No. Rose, no.” He tried to hug her, tried to stop her words because they hurt. Cut through his hearts so precisely and showed him how selfish he was. Taking her compassion and not returning it, thinking he was the only one broken and lost.
“You think I haven’t wanted to give up? Curl into a ball and cry and never see the light of day again? You think I can just sit there and enjoy Mum and Tony without thinking how it’d be like if you were beside me? Or go to Torchwood every single day and not remember how that damn place literally pulled us apart?”
“You’ve always been my strength,” he admitted. His voice broke but he pushed on. “I’m sorry I haven’t been yours.” The Doctor did hold her then. Tugged her into his arms and just…held her.
Rose sighed into his touch and relaxed, winding her arms around him and resting her head on his chest. He knew she listened to his hearts and that the sound soothed her as much as her single heart soothed him.
With as much passion as he promised when they bonded, when they married, he vowed, “I’ll be better. I’ll always be here for you, I swear. I’ll wait for you until the universe ends. You’re not alone in this, Rose. I swear.”
“I know, Doctor.” Rose pulled back just enough to lean up and offer a small, broken smile. “I know. Don’t give up, yeah?”
Ten x Rose
Rated T
Telepathy (telepathic marriage bond)
Angst
Fluffy laughter
Not exactly a rewrite
Dimension Hopping Rose
JE fixit
Happy ending!
Beta’d by the ever fabulous MrsBertucci
AO3 and TSP and on Tumblr Chapter 1
Part of the The Adventures of Bad Wolf and the TARDIS…and their Doctor series
…promise you forever
“Oh, Doctor,” Rose sighed. She looked down at him, dressed only in his trousers, and lying, rumpled, in their bed, and didn’t know whether to be exasperated—or hit him. Again.
He eyed her, tired and strained, his hand grasping hers as if afraid to let go; his dimples dug into his cheeks and his freckles stood out starkly on his pale face. He looked haunted, and Rose, wearing only his dress shirt, resettled herself on their bed and stroked her fingertips over his face, along his forehead, down his cheeks, over and over.
“I didn’t mean to, Rose,” he promised. “It wasn’t like that, I swear! It was a genetic transfer, that’s all!”
“I know.” Rose sighed and cupped his cheek, pressing her lips to his as if to erase the other woman’s touch. “But does Martha?”
“I told her,” he insisted.
“What about your ring?” She lifted his left hand where he wore the ring she’d given him when they exchanged Earth vows in front of the judge and her mum. (And the TARDIS, sitting innocuously in the registrar’s office.)
“When I was in hospital, they asked if I was married.” His voice hollowed and his fingers tightened around hers. “Wanted to call my wife. I said I was—that I was—” his voice smashed into shards around them.
“Oh.” Widowed.
He said he was widowed. Martha thought she, Rose, was dead. Her chest felt like it was going to cave into itself, but Rose tried to understand. Really, she did. Martha only knew what the Doctor told her, she didn’t know he lied.
No doubt she thought he kissed her either on the rebound or—well, it didn’t matter did it.
“I miss you, Rose. My hearts. So much.”
“I miss you, too.” Rose settled back on his chest, letting his double heartbeat calm her.
Even if her physical head wasn’t physically on his chest, they’d shared a telepathic link for long enough that her body believed it real. That was enough. For now. It had to be.
“You have to tell Martha, though. If not about us, then at least that you’re not interested. You have to make it clear, no more mixed signals.”
The Doctor sighed again and wrapped his arms around her, holding her to his chest as if his life depended on it. “I will.”
“But she’s good, yeah?” Rose asked, fishing for more about this Martha and maybe—just maybe—trying not to compare herself with the newbie. The newbie who was going to be a doctor.
“She is.” His smile came clear through. “Very observant, she’s a star.”
Rose laughed and raised her head to kiss him. “Where are you now?”
“Hmm? Oh, we’re in bed.”
“Doctor!” She jerked out of his arms and sat up.
“What? I didn’t mean it like that!”
Rose laughed again and poked his chest. “You’re lying in bed with a woman you kissed not 24 hours ago and you don’t think she’ll get the wrong impression?”
“Ah. Well…” He tugged his ear and looked sheepish. “I never thought about it.” He sobered and looked at her. “I only ever really think about you.”
Well that certainly melted her.
“You’re all I think about, too.” She kissed him, soft and gentle and pushed all her love for her amazing husband through their link. Sitting up, she smirked and added mischievously, “Well, not all the time. Sometimes I think about Mickey’s theory on the rift.”
The Doctor laughed, as he was meant to. “Yeah, but that’s to find your way back here.” He smirked and preened. “To me.”
“Course it’s not,” Rose scoffed. “It’s really to be with the TARDIS again.” Even in their telepathic bedroom, the TARDIS hummed delightedly. Rose grinned up at the ship and sent a wave of love to Her. “See? She knows, too.”
He grabbed her around the waist and tugged her back onto bed, wrapping his body around hers. Nuzzling her hair, he cupped her breast through his shirt and sighed contentedly against her neck, a cool puff of air. “What are you doing?”
“I’m in the lab office,” she admitted. Rose covered his hands with hers, nestling closer to him. It was never close enough. “Trying to study for tomorrow’s test.”
“I could help with that.”
“Help?” She giggled and turned her head to look at him. “Or distract?”
“Hmm.” His hands glided down her sides then up again, beneath the shirt. “Both?”
“How long has it been for you?” Rose whispered.
“Too long.”
“Doctor—how long?”
“Since we last—since Norway?” He didn’t pull back but pulled her closer. “177 days and 15 hours.”
“It’s been longer for me,” Rose admitted but then he probably already knew that. “How is it we keep in sync when our universes aren’t?”
“Oh, well, that’s because we’re bonded, a telepathic bond doesn’t really—oops, gotta go! Screaming in the middle of the night is never a good sign.”
Rose opened her eyes and stared at the lab. She really did have studying to do, but with the Doctor’s phantom touch still tinging through her, hadn’t the focus to do much of anything. Still, she did have a test tomorrow and she did plan to pass it. Spectacularly.
Unfortunately, later when the Doctor shut out all telepathic contact, her head throbbed too hard to concentrate.
“Oh, big mistake. Because that name keeps me fighting!”
He’d screamed those words to the Carrionites, his hearts pounding wildly as he tried to keep Rose safe. The Doctor had no idea if it were possible for the other species to tap into his mind and follow the telepathic thread to Rose, but he sure as hell wasn’t taking any chances.
Now, as he and Martha walked back to the TARDIS, he slowly opened himself back to Rose and offered an apology to her for hurting her so badly. Her mind slept, but, as always, accepted his presence. Grinning slightly, he kissed her goodnight and promised to be there when she woke.
Forever.
The Doctor brought Martha to New New York. He had a vague plan to tell her about Rose. To be fair, the constant ache between his hearts for missing his wife might’ve influenced his choice of locales, he was feeling nostalgic, and frankly didn’t want to tell Martha on the TARDIS where everything reminded him of Rose.
The Old Girl missed Rose, too. And it wasn’t that the TARDIS didn’t like Martha, far as the Doctor could tell She did, but talking about Rose while in their home didn’t sit well. As if he talked of a (dead) wife and not one very much alive and still with him. Just not physically.
Of course that was before kidnappers and choking smog and the Face of Boe.
“I lied.” He tried to tell Martha about Gallifrey, did his best, and wondered how his home world might segue into Rose. Because he’d lied to Martha about so much in such a short time. And Rose was right, he had to tell Martha the truth about his wife, at least.
“I’m sorry,” Martha said and sounded sad for him. Not angry he lied, but…understanding, the Doctor supposed. “Was your wife from Gallifrey?”
“Rose?” He shook his head and looked at his ring, turning the band round and round. “No. She’s Human.” He took a deep breath, though technically speaking he didn’t need to, and met Martha’s gaze. “Rose isn’t dead, Martha. She’s…lost.”
He paused and felt Rose telepathically take his hand, kiss the back of it, and hold tight between hers. She was involved in other things, he could tell by the slight distance in her presence. It didn’t matter, her touch helped, soothed, gave him strength.
Always had.
“The—Canary Wharf. She—we were there, and we tried—we tried to close the void, she—her lever was—anyway.” He swallowed and sat up, dragging his hands down his face. “She’s not dead. But she is in a parallel world. Trapped there. I can’t—I can’t reach her.”
“I’m sorry, Doctor.” It started to rain again, but neither moved from their impromptu circle. “Why did you—” she shook her head. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat but before he could even begin to think of how to tell Martha about their telepathic connection—or if he should—she continued.
“Is that why you sometimes stare into space? You’re—you’re…searching for her?”
The Doctor opened his mouth. Snapped it closed. Martha Jones, hadn’t he told Rose she was observant? He grinned slightly and pushed back his anger and loss. He hadn’t lost everything. He still had his beloved ship and he still had Rose, despite her current physical distance.
“We—we’re connected, Martha. Telepathically.” The word cut his hearts and scraped his throat, but he admitted the truth to his new friend. “And even though the walls between universes have sealed tight, there are still pinpricks. Little spaces that allow our bond to slip through. We can still communicate with each other.”
She looked shocked, and he couldn’t blame her. Telepathy for Humans was one of those things seen on telly or read about in stories. A great idea, fun to speculate about, maybe even wish for, but no one could ever truly comprehend the scope of it.
The intimacy.
Until they shared their minds, their thoughts, their essence with another.
“You can still talk to her?”
“Yes.”
Martha opened and closed her mouth a few times then nodded. “That explains so much,” she muttered. “Well. I’m glad.” She offered a smile, a faint curl of her lips. “I’m glad she’s alive and I’m very happy to hear you can still communicate with her.”
“Me, too, Martha.” He stood and turned for the TARDIS. “Me, too.”
“What do you think he meant?” Rose asked him later when Martha was showering from her smoggy adventure. “You are not alone. They will return.”
“I don’t know.”
She snorted and he craned his neck to look down at her, but didn’t—couldn’t—release her. “Let’s presume—or hope—one of the ‘they’ at least means me, yeah? We both know one way or another I’m coming back to you.”
He pulled her tighter and kissed the top of her head. “Yes. You are.”
“Do you think he—is the Face of Boe male?” Rose turned her head to kiss the underside of his jaw, fingers toying with his. “Do you think he meant the Time Lords?”
The Doctor shuddered. “I hope not,” he fervently whispered.
“Yeah.” Rose turned in his arms and as much as he didn’t want her to see him just now—or to ever discuss the return of the Time Lords—she left him no choice. She never had, not even at the beginning of their relationship.
Then again, their first date had been the end of the world and him telling her he was alone. She hadn’t been confident in her questioning, and of course he’d ignored her at first, but she’d asked over chips and soda. In the end, as they walked back to the TARDIS hand-in-hand, the Doctor had admitted his search for his people.
How, after the Time War, he’d looked for anyone. Even his—Susan. Even Susan hadn’t been spared; she’d fought for the life of the universe alongside Romana in the end. But they’d both, Susan and Romana, had given their blessing to end that damnable war.
It hadn’t been until they meet the Dalek in Utah that he admitted his role in the war. As she had when he first told her about his people and the war, Rose held him when he admitted he—ended it.
Now, wrapped tight in Rose’s arms, he sniffed back choking, oppressive grief and tears. No, he didn’t want Rose to know about his past or about his actions.
The again, he knew what he was getting into when they bonded. Sharing every part of himself hadn’t terrified the Doctor as he always expected it to.
“I’ll be here, Doctor,” Rose promised. “I promised you forever and I mean it.”
Ten x Rose
Rated T
Telepathy (telepathic marriage bond)
Angst
Fluffy laughter
Not exactly a rewrite
Dimension Hopping Rose
JE fixit
Happy ending!
Beta’d by the every fabulous MrsBertucci
AO3 and TSP
Part of the The Adventures of Bad Wolf and the TARDIS...and their Doctor series
...Wait For You
“Rose?” He shouted against the wall. His mind called out for hers, desperate to feel her touch, her telepathic presence. Her love.
“Doctor!”
He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, the blasted white wall that separated him from his wife. Pressing his hand to the weak spot between universes, he channeled every ounce of telepathic strength to punch through two universes.
“Are you safe?”
“Yeah.” She sniffed and suddenly her presence blossomed in his mind. “I’m safe. Here in the other Torchwood with Mum.”
“Jackie’s safe, too? Good. Good.” He closed his eyes against pain and rage and burning tears. “I love you, Rose.”
“I love you, too, my Doctor.” There was a pause and he didn’t know what she did or said, but almost instantly she returned. Her mind caressed his, a warm loving brush of her fingertips that tingled along his nerves. “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” He kept his voice low and soothing even though he was alone and they spoke telepathically. “It wasn’t your fault the Dalek hit the lever.”
“I couldn’t hold on.” Her voice broke and he reached for her.
He didn’t care if UNIT was on its way to Torchwood Tower or that the Humans outside were still in a state of panic. All he cared about was Rose. He gently guided her into their telepathic bedroom, letting the soothing hum of the TARDIS and the muted colors of their room offer whatever comfort they could.
The Doctor lay on the bed with her and held her tightly, his arms around her body as reassuring to him as he knew they were to her. “Are you in pain? The pull—it had to hurt you.”
Rose shook her head against his chest. “I’m all right.” They both knew she lied. “Can you find a way back?” She pulled away just enough for him to see her. The Doctor gently wiped her tears away and kissed her softly. “Pete said the hoppers didn’t work anymore, but can you…?”
“I will.” The both knew his vow was a frantic attempt to appease the desperation choking them. “I will find you, my love.”
Rose grinned, and a little sparkle lightened her eyes. “I’m not lost.” A tear broke free but he caught it before it marred her cheek.
“No.” The word broke but he swallowed down his fear and reckless need to literally punch through the walls between universes. “You’re never lost to me.”
She pulled him to her and kissed him fiercely, hungrily, and he met her, hoping the kiss pushed his desolation far, far away.
“I’ll wait for you,” she promised. Rose pulled back and sniffed, hard, making an effort to control her tears, her voice. The Doctor had no such control but took strength from her.
Always had. Always would.
“I’ll find a way. I promise.”
“Will—” the room wobbled for a double beat of his hearts— “our connection survive?” Rose shuddered and licked her lips, eyes darting from his to his chest, and back again. “Will we still have this?”
“I don’t know.” The words tore from his lips, burning his throat, scorching his mind. “We still do now. But the walls closed—Pete’s right, I told him so after all.”
Rose’s watery chuckle tore at his hearts; he never wanted her to cry. Ever. He pulled her closer, the solid feel of her doing its best to soothe the pain welling up and choking him.
“Never wanted you to be so wrong before.”
“No.” He kissed her forehead. “No, me either. But I will find a way, Rose Tyler.” He pulled back. “I swear to you.”
“Doctor.” The look she gave him, heartbreaking and condescending and hopeful, nearly made him grin. Nearly. “Don’t go collapsing two universes.”
“Rose, for you I’d collapse all of time and space.”
They both knew he wouldn’t. Not really. Well...
“I love you, my hearts.”
Rose pressed her lips to his, hard and desperate. The Doctor shuddered in her arms and nearly cried, but masterfully contained himself. Well, nearly at least. Strong for her, he reminded himself. He had to be strong for Rose.
“Mum’s pulling me away. Says I’ve been standing at that wall for too long. I think she and Mickey are arguing.”
“You tell Mr. Mickey I said to take care of you.” He cupped her cheeks and brushed her hair off her face. Even in their telepathic haven, she looked exhausted and grief-stricken, mascara streaking over her pale cheeks.
“We both know I can take care of myself.”
“I know.” His voice broke. “But I need someone to look out for you. Don’t do anything reckless. I don’t care what Bad Wolf did to you, it didn’t make you invincible.”
“Promise me you won’t do anything reckless,” she shot back. Softer she asked, “You’ll work on finding a way through?”
They both noticed she didn’t promise not to be reckless. Course he hadn’t either. Honestly, the Doctor should’ve known she wouldn’t have. That wasn’t his Rose. Always rushing in, his wife, usually to save him.
“I promise.” He kissed her again, wishing it was her physical body in his arms but grasping what he had with his love with both hands.
“I love you,” Rose sobbed.
“And I you, my hearts.”
When the Doctor retreated from their telepathic bedroom, he was alone. Alone in a white room he wanted to burn to the ground. Only the mournful wail of the TARDIS soothed his battered soul.
When Rose retreated from their telepathic connection into the eerie quiet of a new universe, she saw Mickey standing with his back to her, arms crossed over his chest. Jackie stood next to her, looking heartbroken and concerned and angry. Pete and Jake were arguing with Mickey who ignored them all.
She had never loved her family as much as she did in that moment. If the walls didn’t completely close and she and the Doctor retained their bond, she’d tell him about this.
“Micks.” Her voice cracked, a battered whisper of a sound.
Mickey turned immediately and hugged her tight. “I’m sorry, Rose. I’m so sorry.”
“Me, too.” Her control wavered and splintered. Her mum grasped her hand, shattering what semblance of control Rose thought she retained. “Let’s go—just. I can’t be here anymore.”
“Then you going to tell me when you got married?” He nodded to her left hand and the thin band of metal she wore with deep blue stones that had reminded her of the TARDIS.
“I’ll tell you all about it,” Rose promised. “And if Mum has her mobile on her, we can even show you pictures.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t invite me,” Mickey joked, but his voice cracked and Rose’s knees gave out. He caught her round the middle and she gratefully allowed him, unsure how she was going to walk out of here on her own.
“Was the TARDIS there, at least?” he asked.
Rose looked at him askance. “Course She was.”
He nodded as if he wanted to say more but Rose had no idea what that more could possibly be. She knew he and the TARDIS shared a bond, they played video games together and Mickey often talked to the ship as if She were his best mate.
“Your connection,” Jackie said and wrapped her hand around Rose’s arm. “It’s still—”
“Yeah, Mum.”
“What’d he say?” Jackie asked as they followed Pete and Jake out of the room, the horrible, desolate room on the wrong side of forever.
“He’s going to try.”
“Thought the walls was closed,” Mickey whispered, walking on her other side as if to make sure she had all the support she needed.
This world closed in on her, crushing her chest and suffocating her in its void. But oh, she loved her family. Frantic, she squeezed Jackie’s hand, needing her solid presence as desperately as she needed the Doctor’s. Rose reached for him, his love a comforting brush over her skin like a cool breeze on a warm day.
“Never say never, Mickey.” She managed a smile or thought she did, but from the look on her best mate’s face knew her lips didn’t really work like she wanted them to.
“Well, if anyone can, it’s the Doctor.” Jackie nodded as if her words set it in stone.
@zoebelle9 asked for Ten X Rose and D: Waking up please and thank you? (She’s so polite, isn’t she!)
This is the final story in my Together series and is a Doomsday fix-it. Because I can. Even if I missed @chocolatequeennk’s Doomsday Month.
Together Series:
Meant To
Not So Innocent Meanderings
Tell Me a Secret
AO3 and Teaspoon
“Please wake up, Doctor,” she whispered. “Please.”
Rose pressed her lips to his temple and held the Doctor close, terrified to release him. She brushed her fingers through his hair, strangely flat as he lay unresponsive in her arms. They lay on the spare bed in her mum’s flat, curtains drawn, lights dim. Him on the flat of his back, her curled into his side.
As she had this morning, after they made love. This morning seemed a lifetime ago.
She pressed a kiss to his cheek, his nose, the corner of his mouth, and willed her body to stop shaking. It didn’t listen, but then her will was a little shaky as well. Today had not gone as planned—today took the plan, whatever thin plan the Doctor had, and shook it right out of the universe. Right into the Void.
Outside, the world settled into the controlled chaos it was used to.
Rose envied them. Inside the tiny flat on the council estate she grew up on, Rose held her heart’s life as if he might leave her at any minute. And she wasn’t so certain that wasn’t the case.
She didn’t know what they did to him, didn’t know if they gave him something that might kill him or inhibit memory or motor function. Rose had no idea what they’d done, after she and they Doctor stopped their experiments and closed the gap between universes.
After they trapped the Cybermen in the Void.
Rose wondered if Mickey and Pete knew about that, if they were even the same Cybermen from that other universe. Wondered if they tried jumping into this universe to stop the Cybermen. Hoped they hadn’t got caught between worlds, but they were safe in that one.
Oh, Mickey. Be happy. Please.
Closing her eyes, she listened to the Doctor’s hearts beating. They sounded just fine, in sync and steady. She pressed her lips to his forehead, kept her hands on him. He was a touch telepath, he had to feel something from her, yeah? One hand firmly held his; the fingers of her other traced the curve of his jaw, the slope of his neck, the angle of his collar bone.
Part of her wanted to strip him and press his naked body to hers, just to reassure herself he still lived. Not in her mum’s flat, not with Jackie in the kitchen making tea. The TARDIS hummed quietly in the corner where the Doctor landed her earlier today.
Today? Rose sighed and let her gritty eyes close tiredly. Yes, that was all today.
One minute she and the Doctor lay in bed (their bed now) after making love and the next her mum called with stories of ghosts popping up on the streets. One minute it was just another adventure, the next it was a secret government organization kidnapping the Doctor and threatening to kill him.
Which, okay, wasn’t entirely unusual. But to strap him down and threaten torture for supposed crimes against the crown 120 years ago?
“Here.” Jackie held out a mug of steaming tea, strong and black.
Rose scrambled up the bed and carefully lifted the Doctor’s weight against her. She tilted his head back and opened his mouth.
The mug wasn’t too full, and Rose was careful not to scald him with the tea. Even unconscious, he swallowed a couple tiny sips. As if he knew she needed him to do so. She set the mug on the bedside table and closed her eyes again, letting her head fall against the wall with a dull thud.
She was too tired to even wince at the impact.
“You need sleep, sweetheart,” Jackie said quietly. “You’ll do him no good if you don’t take care of yourself.”
“I know, Mum.” Rose didn’t open her eyes, but tightened her fingers around the Doctor’s. “I can’t get the image of him out of my head, though.”
Rose shuddered and squeezed her eyes tightly closed as if that might help erase what Torchwood did to him. How they tortured the Doctor. It did not. She doubted anything would.
“You said he’s all right,” Jackie insisted. “He is, yeah?”
Rose swallowed and slowly opened her eyes. She was too tired to lie, to do much of anything. “He’s alive. I don’t know what they did to him, what sorts o’ drugs they gave him. This was all after we sorted the Cybermen and those energy conductors they used to open the Void backed up and threatened to explode. The Doctor promised to fix it, but Yvonne Hartmann had him taken.”
She shuddered and swallowed hard to clear her throat of the fear and pain. The sheer terror at not finding him after she helped evacuate the upper floors. Well, she and—Rose shook her head. “By the time I found him, he was strapped to a table plugged into all these machines.”
To find out how this alien worked. Because if it’s alien it’s Torchwood’s. Rose swallowed hard and willed the nausea down. How could anyone think a living being was property?
Jackie shuddered and Rose was inordinately pleased she hadn’t been with them when they found Torchwood. Who knew what those crazy people might do to her mum just to get answers from the Doctor?
“Bastards,” Jackie muttered.
Snorting, Rose agreed. “Yeah. But they’re mostly dead now. Yvonne is, at least.”
Yvonne hadn’t listened about the energy backlash. Yvonne had been far too interested in dissecting and exploiting the Doctor.
“They ought to be exposed,” Jackie insisted. “That journalist friend of yours, she ought to do a write up on them.”
Stunned, Rose stared at her mum. “You’re a genius,” she muttered. Her gaze drifted to the door and she watched the empty opening blindly for a moment. “I’ll call Sarah Jane—after.” She frowned and hugged the Doctor tighter. Closer. “After the Doctor wakes up.”
“It’s like the other Christmas, though, yeah?” Jackie took the mug of tea and looked at it as if it contained answers to all the many questions they both had. She set it back on the table. “When he was in that, what’d you call it? Healing coma?”
Rose nodded and pressed her lips to the top of the Doctor’s head. He didn’t move, didn’t stir, simply breathed evenly and just—just slept.
“I’ll stay with him a bit,” Jackie insisted. “You shower and change. After, I’ll make tea and we’ll have some of the biscuits from that ship of his. The ones we had after Mickey—” Jackie stopped and blinked rapidly. “Those lovely chocolate ones.”
Rose hummed but didn’t move.
“Besides, I think you have another person you can get answers from.”
Her head shot up. “Jack’s still here?”
Jackie gave her a withering look. “Course he is, where’d you expect him to go?”
Rose had no idea. Everything with Torchwood and the ghosts and that stupid power supply Yvonne Hartman wanted and then what she’d tried to do to the Doctor—all of it made sense at the time, as they raced through the tower at Canary Wharf and tried to figure out the mystery. Now, now all it did was replay itself in her mind on a loop of about twenty seconds.
The Doctor hooked up on those machines. The Doctor unresponsive. The Doctor unconscious.
“Jack helped get the Doctor out of Torchwood,” she whispered.
“He seemed very worried,” Jackie added. “When you brought him in. He doesn’t say much, for all he talked. Reminds me of this one,” she said and nodded to the Doctor. “Both seen too much and hide it.”
Frowning at her mum for her unusual observation, Rose nodded and promised, “I’ll talk to him after I shower.”
It took her another twenty minutes or so to pry herself from the Doctor’s side. He may have grunted when she finally moved, finally released his hand. Or that may have been her own wistful thinking.
A quick shower and change of clothes later, and Rose opened the TARDIS doors and exited.
She hadn’t returned to his—their?—room.
She hadn’t laid on their bed and cried.
She hadn’t begged the TARDIS for help in waking him.
And if she had, only Rose and the TARDIS knew.
Jackie sat by the Doctor’s bed, her own mug of tea at her side, and read that independent newspaper she took to reading after Mickey decided to stay in the other universe. The one Sarah Jane sometimes wrote for—no wonder she mentioned having Sarah Jane do an article. Jackie looked up at Rose and nodded, a strained smile curving her lips.
Feeling slightly refreshed, Rose leaned over and kissed the Doctor’s cheek. “Please wake up.” She caressed the spot she kissed, pushing all her love, all her hope, all her need for him into that touch. He didn’t stir.
Rose kissed her mum’s cheek and whispered, “Thank you.”
Damp hair curling around her cheeks, exhaustion tugging her limbs, worry berating heavily in her chest, Rose lifted her chin and squared her shoulders. She turned from the spare bedroom, once her room, and went to face an old friend.
She hovered in the archway of her mum’s living room and watched him. Jack Harkness sprawled out on the couch, hands folded over his button-down shirt, eyes closed and not looking a day older than the last time she’d seen him.
She watched him for a long minute, not sure where to begin. What to say. What even happened today. Yes, it made sense then. Now, in hindsight with her clawing, choking fear for the Doctor threatening to make her curl in a tiny ball and cry?
Nothing made sense.
“I won’t bite,” Jack said and cracked open an eye. “Unless you want me to.” He waggled his eyebrows in that Jack-way.
Rose snorted and entered the room. She let none of her anxiety show, none of her fear or tears or uncertainty. She swallowed them all down and met Jack Harkness’s steady gaze.
“How are you even here?” she asked and sat on a chair opposite him. “I don’t understand any of it.” Her voice hitched on the final word and she pressed her fingers into her thigh. Jack had to see, missed nothing that one, but the small tell was better than frustrated tears. “I thought you died!”
“Rosie,” Jack sighed and sat up. He scrubbed a hand through his hair and slipped his braces back on. “It’s a long story. A very long story.”
“Start at the beginning,” she commanded. Rose shook her head. “No. Start with how you were at Torchwood today.”
And if she sneered those final words, so be it.
Jack opened his mouth, closed it, repeated the motion and finally nodded. “Short version then. I didn’t die on the Game Station, heard the TARDIS leave and used my Vortex Manipulator to follow you guys, missed and landed in 1869.”
Eyes wide, mouth agape, Rose let out a squeak of disbelief. “Wha…?”
So much for not giving anything away.
Jack nodded ruefully. “Lived through the rest of the 19th century and all the 20th hoping to find you and the Doctor again.”
If possible, Rose’s mouth dropped open more. “And Torchwood?” she asked, voice thin and heart pounding.
“They found out about me.”
He didn’t say but he didn’t have to. Rose knew. If he lived 140 years waiting for them…even 51st century medicine wasn’t that good.
“They found out about you—your longevity.” Rose stated, not bothering to ask. “And they threatened you.”
“It’s more than longevity, Rose.” Jack cleared his throat and knelt before her. He took her hand, and she stared at it as if Jack were a stranger, not one of her closest friends.
But no, it really was him. Really was Jack.
“I can’t die, Rosie.”
That noise, that squeaky little noise of disbelief came from her, she knew it did. But then Rose swallowed and nodded.
“I know.” She shook her head and it was all so clear, so obvious. “I mean, I know, Jack.”
Yes, that cleared things right up, didn’t it. Rose sighed and squeezed his hand before releasing it. She let him sit back on the couch while she ordered her thoughts and memories, or new memories or instinct or whatever it was.
Rose stared blindly at the archway between the living room and her old room, willing the Doctor to just wake up.
“I—I didn’t know before,” she said slowly, the hum of the TARDIS loud even in the living room. Or maybe it was in her head. “I don’t—I didn’t,” she corrected, “remember what happened. But the Doctor.”
Rose cut herself off, not sure what she remembered or what she wanted to say. She looked through the wall as if she could see into her old bedroom where the Doctor still slept. The words were there, but they refused to order themselves, refused to be spoken.
As if the universe will explode if I remember. Hadn’t she said that to Mickey once? About flying the TARDIS?
She shook her head again and zeroed in on Jack. She was tired, worried, and now she wanted answers. “Why were you at Torchwood?” she demanded.
“I run the Torchwood III base in Cardiff,” Jack admitted. “I usually try to fly under Torchwood London’s radar, but when the ghosts appeared, I needed answers.”
“And you just happened to be there at the same time and same day as us?” Rose asked in pure disbelief.
Jack only frowned. “I know it seems odd, but what are the chances I’m still alive? What are the chances I found you and the Doctor again? I searched for over a hundred years, and now, here, I found you.” He shook his head and suddenly looked tired. Old and tired and beaten down. “What are the chances for any of it?”
“Oh, I’d say about one-hundred million—” Rose jerked her head in the direction of the archway—“three hundred thousand seventy-five—” leapt from the chair—“two hundred and sixty—” he opened his arms for her—“to one.”
She rushed into the Doctor’s arms and hugged him tight, breathing in the scent of him, mixed with a little more tea than she expected. Rose pulled back, eyed the dark tea stain and smacked him square in the chest.
“Don’t you ever frighten me like that again!” she shouted.
Then pulled him down for a kiss. Just to prove to herself he really was alive and standing before her. His hands settled on her hips and pulled her tight, mouth opened to hers.
“I never wanted to scare you, Rose. My Rose.” His lips curved against hers. “You’re alive.”
“So are you. I was afraid—” she stopped and sucked in a deep breath. “I’m glad you’re awake, I was worried.” Rose leaned her forehead against his and took a moment. She swallowed her tears and took just a moment with her lover. “I was so worried.”
“My Rose,” he breathed and cupped her cheeks. “I’ll always find you. I’ll always protect you.”
The Doctor pressed his lips to hers in a chaste kiss, but Rose felt so much more from him. She felt his terror, the way it squeezed his hearts and scrambled his brain. She felt his relief that she was alive and with him. And she felt his love. The strong, pulsing, overpowering force of it.
“What happened?” she demanded and stepped back. “What did they do to you?”
“I’ll make more tea,” Jackie offered. She sounded tired and drained. “And maybe call for takeaway from the Indian place around the corner. Yeah?”
She moved into the kitchen before anyone could answer, phone in hand. Rose stared after her mum, a little nonplussed at Jackie’s nonchalant attitude. Then again, Jackie had been the one to call the Doctor when the ghosts appeared. Not Sarah Jane, not anyone from UNIT the Doctor insisted he still knew.
Jackie Tyler.
Rose shook her head at her frankly amazing mum and returned her attention to the Doctor. He looked at Jack warily but hadn’t moved from her embrace.
“What did they want with you?” she demanded again.
“Remember when we met Queen Victoria?” The Doctor tugged his ear but he still looked tired and drawn. “Apparently she didn’t like my attitude and created Torchwood to stop me.”
“I wiped those files,” Jack offered, looking at the Doctor with the same wariness.
Rose sighed and flopped back onto the chair. Her long day wasn’t over yet.
****
Hours later, food eaten, forgotten and reheated and eaten again, pots and pots of tea, two bottles of wine, and one very long explanation from Jack, she and the Doctor curled in their bed on the TARDIS.
“Today wasn’t supposed to go like that,” he said.
His long, cool fingers traced the line of her spine beneath her vest top. Rose shifted her leg over his pajama-clad ones and folded her arms on his bare chest, chin resting there to better see him.
Really, all she wanted to do was sleep but her brain raced with stories and apologies, with guilt and anger. She and the Doctor fought, the Doctor and Jack fought, Jackie—never one to keep quiet—yelled at all of them for being so reckless with their lives.
She was exhausted and wired at once, and didn’t know what she wanted. But feeling the Doctor’s skin against hers helped soothe Rose and she pressed a kiss to the center of his chest.
“What do you mean? How was today supposed to go?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I just—remember the storm?”
Rose shuddered and tried not to think about it. She still thought he was wrong, that he dwelled on it so much the Doctor somehow willed the storm into existence. No, she didn’t know how that was possible, but in this universe? Anything was.
“The instant we landed the TARDIS in Torchwood, I felt it.”
“Timelines?” Rose moved and brushed her fingers along his cheek. “What did you see?”
The Doctor talked about timelines enough that Rose learned his tells, such as they were, whenever he saw them. The slight twisting of his mouth, how his eyes darkened and deepened, almost as if they were twin black holes, not the light brown she knew and loved. He described it as like watching countless scenes play out in two mirrors facing each other.
An infinity of possibilities.
“I felt that storm. That’s why I wanted you to stay in the TARDIS. I didn’t want it to grab hold of you.” His eyes squeezed tightly closed and wrapped his arms around her. “I was afraid it’d take you away from me. But it didn’t and I don’t know why it didn’t.”
“I think we should just be glad it didn’t,” she whispered.
“Rose,” he said seriously. Then he wrinkled his nose. “I think your mum saved us.
Pairing: Nine x Rose and Ten x Rose | Rating: All
Summary: While shopping for Mickey and Martha’s baby shower, the Doctor shares with Rose occasions when he helped others with their babies, wearing a baby carrier and dabbling in obstetrics.
A/N: Prompted by @chiaroscuroverse and @gingergallifreyan. Technically a Doomsday fix-it with slight canon divergence. I decided to just make this one fic. :) And it should go without saying, but just in case, this is baby!fic.
Part of my Fourteen Days of Ficlets special. Tune in every day between July 4 - 17 at 6:30 pm EST. Find out what will be posted here.
“Best baby store in the galaxy, right here Rose!” the Doctor cheered, holding up his hands in the air in front of a giant mall-sized baby store. Rose wouldn’t refute that claim, not if it really was that big on the inside.
They headed inside and Rose watched in shock (though really she wasn’t sure why she was surprised) as the Doctor became a kid in a candy store, racing a trolley down the first row of aisles with his feet on the bars. Rose apologized to the shopkeepers as she followed behind him at a leisurely pace. Eventually he’d stop. And he did, in the rocking chair section. Rose wiped her hand across her face as the Doctor tried out each one, humming in contemplation and voicing his mental notes as he plopped up and sat down. It was in moments like this that Rose wondered if he really was 900 years old and not five. But bless him, he was cute. Rose would give him that.
“Just so you know if we’re getting Mickey and Martha a rocking chair you’re carrying it back to the TARDIS. And honestly we should be looking at more practical gifts, don’t you think?”
“This is practical!” the Doctor argued, folding one leg over the other.
She snorted. “And what do you know about babies anyway, Doctor?”
He stood up and shoved his hands in his suede coat, straighting up in pride. “I’ll have you know, Rose Tyler, that I’m a baby expert. Got loads of experience, me.”
“Oh yeah? Prove it then.”
He started strutting down an aisle full of stuffed animals. “Don’t need to. It’s not my fault you weren’t present when I demonstrated my masterful baby wrangling skills.”
Rose stopped and picked up a bear. “What?”
“Remember on Maltrex after the hurricane? You were helping the orphanage and I took a group over the mountains?”
A few families had become separated by a hurricane on Maltrex, a planet dotted with little islands plagued by frequent tropical storms. While Rose helped the island’s tiny orphanage with their caved in roof and flooding the Doctor escorted the families over the mountain. With children and the elderly in tow he was more than happy to help them. But when one of the mothers tripped on a rock her husband had to help her walk the rest of the way.
“So who - oh! YOU! Oh my god how could I have missed this? You and a baby. I can’t even imagine,” Rose teased.
“I’ll have you know we got on swimmingly,” the Doctor turned up his nose as he started filling their trolley with gifts and relaying the story to her.
Swimmingly might have been a bit of an exaggeration. The Doctor argued with the Maltrexan families in his charge over who should carry the baby. They all agreed that he should do it since he’d been nattering on about how to keep the little one calm anyway. He considered next time keeping his flapping mouth shut. He didn’t blame the little tyke at all though. Poor boy was exhausted, hungry, and wet from the rain.
“You tied a baby wrap all on your own?” Rose asked, mouth agape.
“I must say, Rose Tyler, that your continued surprise in my baby wrangling skills is a bit hurtful,” the Doctor feigned.
Rose laughed.
Being fair, figuring out the baby wrap wasn’t unlike untangling Christmas lights. “I know what I’m doing! Promise. I have done this before,” he’d said to several incredulous stares as he got his arm caught in the stupid contraption. In the end he resolved to take off his jumper and tie it around his waist, which helped him maneuver the baby wrap.
“Now look here you. The fussin’ and moanin’ won’t change the situation. I don’t like this any more than you do, so if it’s all the same to you, button it so we can get you home and warm sooner, yeah?” he’d told the squalling little boy as he fitted him safely in the wrap.
“Aww now Doctor that’s no way to speak to a baby. Bet that made it worse.”
“It might have, if I didn’t speak baby.”
Rose stopped in her tracks and the Doctor kept walking down the bedding aisle. “Now you’re havin’ me on.”
“I do!”
“All right then, what’d he say?”
“Not much, honestly. After I got him quiet he more or less ignored me. Figured if he didn’t acknowledge me that I’d go away.”
Funnily enough most of the hike went this way. The wee one voiced his complaints when he was hungry, and the task of feeding him of course fell to the Doctor. That was an argument in itself. He was starving but the Doctor was very much not his mum, so he still put up a protest. He gave in when the Doctor convinced him it was of no consequence to him if he drank his bottle or not (a white lie, of course, not that the baby knew any different).
When the temperature dropped as the sun fell the Doctor draped his coat over the baby boy so he wouldn’t freeze. Their pace slowed considerably after the Doctor took charge of the little one, but it couldn’t be helped. At times he was cupping the baby’s tiny feet in his hands while walking because his socks fell off and infants lost a lot of body heat through their feet. It wasn’t an ideal situation for a baby at all, but they made the best of it.
“Oh my god,” Rose cooed, and grabbed the Doctor’s arm. “That’s so cute! Aww tell me you two became friends.”
The Doctor pouted his lower lip and nodded, waggling his head a little. “Well, yeah. I suppose. When somebody’s strapped to you for several hours you get to know them a little. But he did spend the second half of the hike over the mountain asleep.”
The Doctor had actually spent a good bit of the hike, once the little tyke finally accepted him, telling him about Rose. They hadn’t been traveling together that long, but he didn’t want to imagine going anywhere without her. He told the little one he was convinced he’d adore Rose if he met her. Who wouldn’t? At the time he wasn’t imagining Rose taking on the task of caring for the baby, but now that they were browsing a baby store he couldn’t help picturing it.
Rose’s grin only grew and she hugged his arm with glee for a moment. “That’s so sweet. How good of you, taking care of him like that. You talking to babies and changing nappies, I would never have imagined. Next you’ll be telling me you deliver them too.”
“Well I am a Doctor, Rose.”
Rose hopped around to the front of the trolley and blocked it. “You haven’t.”
“I’ve been known to dabble in obstetrics when it’s needed, yes,” the Doctor retorted with all the nonchalance he could muster.
“Don’t tell me I missed this too.”
“You can ask Mickey about this one. He was there. You’d gotten yourself arrested, remember?”
“That civil war with all the bombs? You delivered a baby in that?”
“You bet I did. With limited tools, too. A bunker is no delivery room, Rose. Dirty, cold, no blankets and no bed. That mum was as tough as nails, I’ll give her that.”
His grin was entirely too cheeky when he watched her reaction to this, face ripening as she imagined the wiry excitable Doctor helping a woman give birth.
“Tell you what, Rose,” the Doctor continued. “We ought to be getting Mickey ready now, because he does not handle birth well. At all.”
Mickey had always had a bit of a sensitive stomach, so this didn’t surprise Rose at all. But what the Doctor was forgetting was he was incredibly dependable. He wouldn’t leave Martha’s side, Rose knew that much. Still, she was curious about what she’d missed.
“What happened?”
The Doctor leaned over the trolley and stared off as he began telling Rose the story. “It was after nightfall. I knew this woman was in labor but I’d been hoping the bombs would stop raining down so we could fetch a couple more medics. It’s not easy delivering a baby alone, Rose.”
“I thought you were in that bunker with a dozen people or something.”
“None of whom she knew.” The Doctor breathed in hard. “We spent a good bit of time arguing because she didn’t even want my help. She was convinced if she simply waited she could ‘hold it.’” Rose’s eyes widened but the Doctor continued. “She learned on her own that wasn’t true. Meanwhile your boy Mickey was shaking he was so terrified.”
“Well he’s Martha’s now,” Rose laughed.
“Anyway, there wasn’t light in the bunker but fortunately I had a tiny torch. So I put Mickey to work holding it while I helped the woman deliver her baby. That was a tricky birth, Rose. Bombs shook the bunker which was already partly exposed. And since the stubborn little baby wanted to be born breech -”
“What’s that?”
“Bum first, Rose. It’s tricky business. This woman would’ve been much safer in a hospital. Not that I didn’t know what I was doing. I did! So happens I’d delivered a breech baby before. It was a baby giraffe. But same difference.”
Rose leaned in attentively. “What did you do?”
“Well I delivered the baby of course. The mother wanted to pack it in a couple of times. But you know me Rose, never give up, eh? Put my gob to good use and just talked her through it. One step at a time. Calmly.”
Most of the time when the Doctor was calm during a crisis he was seething with anger and the dark clouds of the Oncoming Storm loomed overhead. But Rose could also imagine him taming his energetic side to help someone in need. He did have great focus, and a big heart. Hearts.
“So did she do all right? Her and the baby were okay?”
The Doctor rolled on his feet, pushing the trolley forward a bit. “Fit as fiddles! All thanks to yours truly and one hardworking mum.” He winked at Rose and started walking down the next aisle. “I’ve got loads of stories like that. Those are just the most recent.”
Rose pursed her lips and dug her nails into her palms. She reminded herself to breathe, which despite all that she’d been through was still something she had to remind herself to do. Her heart rang excitement in her ears.
“You’d make a great dad, Doctor.”
The Doctor beamed and nudged her playfully. “Think so?”
“If you’d want to, yeah.”
He hummed cheekily. “Oh I love being around children, they’re brilliant fun. Why, you taking auditions for the job, Rose Tyler?”
“Job’s already taken.”
He crashed into the shelves at the end of the aisle and paled. “What?” he croaked, voice cracking.
Rose took the Doctor’s hand, knuckles white from gripping the trolley handle so tight. “You’re going to be a daddy, Doctor. If you want.”
The Doctor scooped Rose up in his arms and twirled her around, peppering her face and neck with kisses. “Want? Oh, Rose! That’s fantastic, brilliant, perfect! We’re going to need a few more trolleys!”
I’m leaving for San Diego today and the Romance Writer’s of America annual conference.I’ll be taking loads of notes so if anyone wants to know about the publishing world, self-publishing in particular, let me know!
Hopefully I’ll have time on this trip (or at least the flight!) to write the Doomsday fix-it I have rattling around in my head. Until next week!
Oops, I meant 16, but whichever one you'd rather do is fine!
16: things you said with nospace between us (Ten x Rose)
“I love you.”
The words were gasped into her shoulder as he held herimpossibly closer, physically and mentally. He clutched her desperately to himas his mind burrowed as deeply as it could into hers. His mind was a scatteredmess of fear and anxiety, and Rose worked on swaddling him in as much love andcomfort and reassurance as she could manage.
She wrapped her legs around his hips, guiding his motions ashe thrust frantically into her. She was nowhere near completion, but that wasokay. She was far too worried about him to focus on herself.
He lost himself inher, and she was there, waiting to catch him.
“I love you, my Doctor,” she whispered into his ear, and he sobbed hername into her neck as he emptied himself inside of her.
Rose held him tightly as he panted against her neck and trembledin her arms.
Rose held him for many minutes and continued to whispersoftly to him and send him pulses of love and calm. She stroked her fingersacross is back and into his hair and down his back again until he finallystopped shaking. He lifted himself away from her for just a brief moment beforecurling himself against her.
“Was that…did you…?”
Rose shook her head, and his face fall.
“It’s okay,” she said quickly. And it really was. The dayhad been a mess all around, and they had come so close to losing each other.The moment the Void sealed itself, with Rose just a few precious feet fromfalling into it, the Doctor had rushed up to her and crashed his lips to hersand hadn’t let go of her since.
She was worried about him, and she let him know throughtheir bond.
“I almost lost you,” he whimpered into her hair. “I can’t lose you, Rose.I can’t. I need you too much. I don’t want to be on my own anymore.”
“I know, love, I know,” Rose soothed.
She shifted slightly to rest her forehead against his. Theirbond flared brightly, and the Doctor let out a shuddering sigh as he burrowednearer to her than she ever thought possible. He was everywhere in her mind,and she was sure she was everywhere in his. It was beautiful and tragic, andRose wrapped her arms around him to get closer.
They both lost themselves ineach other for several long minutes before they both soothed each other into apeaceful sleep.
