Second Chance at Forever - Chapter 14
Chapter 14 of this year’s entry for the @dwsecretsanta, my present to @wordsintimeandspace! Beta’d by the always-kind @stupidsatsuma. Thank you!
@doctorroseprompts and @timepetalscollective as an AU fic
General warnings for: alcohol use, cursing, discussions of sexual activities and mature situations. No explicit love scenes.
Masterlist
AO3
Summary
Once upon a time, a boy and girl met at a bar and fell in love - until he ghosted her.
Five years later Rose Tyler’s best friend Mickey is getting married, and arranges a dinner for her to meet the groomsman she’ll be walking with - unaware that the two already know each other.
John Noble’s not sure how his friend and mentee managed to connive with the Universe to bring the One Who Got Away back into his life; all he knows it carefully built and maintained walls are crashing to the ground with no warning.
At first, John’s few functioning brain cells assumed the noise was his pulse beating in his ears. He and Rose were tangled on the couch, her hand in his pants while his were occupied at her chest. They were kissing frantically, sloppily, too focused on the pleasure they were bringing their partner to concentrate properly.
Then he heard his name. Not just the sexy way Rose was whispering it, but his sister’s obnoxious loudmouth calling for him.
Reluctantly tearing his mouth away from hers, he propped himself up slightly and strained to listen.
“No, shh, John,” Rose pleaded, and the way she said it meant he wasn’t imagining things.
“Please tell me my sister’s not outside our door.”
She pulled him back to her by his half-undone tie, mouth latching onto his adam’s apple. “She’ll go away. Don’t stop.”
The choice was taken away from him by the door slamming open, and they both moaned in regret. With no time to hide what they’d been up to, John just shifted higher to cover Rose’s bare chest as Donna stalked in.
“Oh, you have got to be shitting me,” the redhead fumed as she came around the couch and found them lying together. “I’ve been calling for an hour!”
“Go away,” John said firmly, knowing if she had gone to the effort of showing up something was seriously wrong but wanting to hold onto denial a few moments longer. “We’re busy.”
“You have the rest of your lives to shag,” Donna was unsympathetically blunt. “But I need Rose, now.”
“So do I,” he muttered before her words processed. “Wait, what?”
Rose wriggled beneath him, achieving nothing more than torturing him. “Donna, can you give us a minute? Maybe wait in the kitchen?”
Standing above them with her arms crossed, lit by the moonlight coming from the floor-to-ceiling windows, Donna cut an imposing figure. “I’ll be at the window. Don’t you dare do anything but stand up and put yourself back together.” She spun on her heel, walking the few yards to stare out at the city.
Glancing down at Rose, he held her eye for a moment before she pinched his side. Sighing heavily he stood, offering Rose a hand up. It didn’t take them long to make themselves presentable, though John winced as his zipper made a loud noise in the otherwise quiet room.
Once they were ready Rose turned on the light on the end table, bathing the room in a soft glow. “Sorry, Donna. What’s going on?”
Donna returned to them, and the two women sat gingerly. Not quite ready to meet his sister’s eye and needing time to get himself under control, John busied himself in the kitchen preparing tea. He couldn’t hear much of what was being said, but didn’t need to; he knew his sister, and it would have to be an absolute crisis at work to show up at Rose’s door unannounced at midnight.
Fetching Rose’s purse from where it had dropped by the door, he fished out her phone and plugged it into the charger on the counter. Sure enough the screen showed more than a dozen missed texts and calls from Donna. Fixing each a cuppa to taste, he brought them back to the sitting area just as Rose buried her head in her hands.
“Here, love.” He would be lying to say he wasn’t irritated at the interruption, but made a conscious effort to clear his expression before she looked up. Whatever was wrong wasn’t her fault, or at least not deliberately with the intention of ruining their night. She had been plenty understanding the few times he’d been called away for a medical emergency, not least of which being his month-long trip to Haiti; now it was his turn.
A relationship, a marriage, like the one they were building would only succeed with equality. Support went both ways, and he would be damned before he gave her any reason to hesitate about his commitment.
“What’s going on?” he asked quietly, settling one palm on Rose’s back as she sank into his side, blowing gently on her tea.
“This morning Rose presented a new spread to our- her biggest client, and the meeting went well, they loved it,” Donna sighed, watching Rose with sympathy. “But… the meeting was with the number two guy. Apparently when he presented it to his boss, at ten o’clock tonight no less, she flipped her shit. We’ll lose the account if it’s not redone to new specs by eight Friday morning. It took more than an hour to negotiate them down to that, if you can believe. The owner wanted it Monday morning, but Harriet – the owner of our firm convinced her that was unreasonable. If they like what we come up with by Friday, they’ll pay for both sets of designs and stay clients; if Yvonne doesn’t, she won’t pay a penny and will pull her business.”
“And she’s an important client?” John gathered.
Rose moaned. “Millions of pounds a year. We’ve been working on this for months, it was perfect. Witch.”
“What can I do to help?”
His girlfriend straightened up with a pout. “Not much, I’m afraid. I’m going to have to work pretty much straight through to get this done in time, even with the extra help Harriet’s promised me.”
“Then you’ll do that,” he said brusquely, already formulating and discarding half a dozen plans. “I’ll handle everything else. Take a shower, wash your face. I’ll have some war supplies ready for you by the time you’re done. Go, go.”
Rose stood, taking the time to lean down and kiss him. “We really will have to wait for after the wedding now,” she whispered, but he just shook his head, pressing his lips to hers.
“Don’t worry about that. Do what you need to.” As soon as she disappeared down the hall he went into crisis mode, heading for the kitchen and pulling out canvas bags, his sister trailing behind.
“So, sorry for interrupting what I walked in on,” Donna mentioned, leaning against the countertop.
“Me too,” was all he said, focusing on his plan. Grabbing down every insulated travel mug they had, he started filling them with tea before refilling the kettle for more. Opening the snack cabinet, he pulled out everything relatively healthy and started throwing it in a bag. “Can you...” Gesturing towards the whistling kettle he didn’t wait for a response, heading for the bedroom.
Locating her overnight bag in the back of her closet, he efficiently packed two changes of clothes and comfortable shoes. A quick raid of her gym bag produced on-the-go toiletries, which got tossed in as well. Returning to the kitchen with a detour to drop the bag by the door, he took over the tea-making, tightly closing the lid of the last travel mug by the time Rose reappeared in yoga pants and a tee, one it took him a moment to realize came from his own drawer unless she’d gone to Cambridge Med School without telling him.
“Right, I’ll head in and get started, Donna, go home and get some rest. I’ll need you first thing,” she started, before stopping to stare at the now-cluttered counter. “What’s all this?”
“Supplies,” John shrugged, crossing his arms as he leaned back against the counter. Donna’s gaze was burning a hole in the side of his head, making him flush, but he refused to feel ashamed of showing how much he loved Rose.
She slowly shook her head, expression softening. “I know you said… thank you, John.”
“Anything for you. There’s also a bag by the door.”
Padding up to him, she tugged him down for a firm kiss, momentarily sucking at his bottom lip before releasing him. “I love you.”
“Love you too. You’re taking a cab, yeah?”
Rose nodded. “I’ll text you, but probably won’t be home before tomorrow night. Er, tonight, I guess,” she corrected herself, seeing the time. “Don’t forget to feed the cat.”
“I won’t. Now, shoo. The sooner you go the sooner you can come back.”
With one last kiss for her and a wave to his sister, the girls were gone in a whirlwind, leaving him alone in the kitchen.
Tardis came barreling in then, jumping up onto the counter and nosing around some of the food he’d left out. John sighed, pushing her away and starting to restore the room to normalcy.
“Guess it’s you and me now, girl.”
The next day was Saturday, and he puttered around the flat for part of the morning before deciding to unpack some of the boxes sitting around. Most of them were books, cds, and knickknacks, and he took his time arranging them just so. Rose had cleared some space for his things, and he killed some time reorganizing for fun.
He spent the afternoon polishing the finals for his various classes, drawing up study guides and planning the last week of lessons. By teatime he was bored and lonely, unable to remember how he’d survived on his own for so many years. The cat was somewhat of a comfort, having a living creature there to talk to instead of thin air.
Rose appeared around nine, taking a shower and scarfing down a salad before collapsing into bed. Despite the early hour he went with her at her request, holding her close in the dark as she slept. When he woke at dawn she was already gone, and he trudged through most of the day in a grumpy mood.
When five rolled around and he didn’t hear from her he texted her himself.
How’s it going?
She responded almost instantly. Ugh. Ok, I guess, but UGH, with an angry person emoji attached for good measure.
Dinner?
Probably takeaway in a few hours. Too busy. Sorry. This time, the tiny face was pouting.
Tapping the phone against his thigh as he debated, he ran his idea past Tardis. “What do you think, girl?”
He took the meowing for a yes.
“Ugh, that’s not going to work,” Rose groaned, throwing her pen on the table in front of her and closing her eyes in frustration. The office was empty on a Sunday evening except for them, so they’d taken over the main conference room to make use of the large whiteboards. She was incredibly grateful to the ragtag team Harriet had scrambled together for her, but so far all they had to show was a lot of terrible ideas and a few with potential. The idea was out there, just waiting to be had, but they were running on fumes at this point. “Let’s… let’s take a break for a few minutes, order some dinner. Yeah?”
There were five of them; Rose and Donna of course, and to her surprise Harriet as well. Her boss and mentor had roped in one of the more junior girls, a lovely if too-perky woman named Mel, and an intern named Bill, who had lots of brilliant out-of-the-box ideas that would work for any other client, but not Yvonne.
“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Donna commented, staring behind her. “Look.”
Rose looked over her shoulder, gasping when she realized her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. Jumping from her chair, she hurried to the door and threw it open to let John and two other men in. She didn’t know who they were, but one carried pizza boxes and the other a bag of chips and pop, so she didn’t care.
“What’re you doing here?” she asked in delight, throwing her arms around John. He hugged her back, the bags he carried thumping against her spine but she didn’t care, too happy to see him.
“I brought reinforcements and some temporary help, hope that’s all right.”
Mindful of the glass walls of the conference room she didn’t snog the daylights out of him like she wanted to, merely squeezed tighter. “Thank you.”
Taking one of the bags from him they walked in together to find one of the two men already regaling the women with a lively story.
“Jack,” John said in a warning tone, and the man turned with a smile. He was handsome, tall and broad shoulders, and if she didn’t have John he would’ve been just her type.
“What? Trying to lighten the mood!”
“That’s what the food is for.” The other man was dressed in a three-piece suit, and said it with such a resigned, fond air that said maybe Rose wasn’t Jack’s type after all. “You all look like you need a break, come eat.”
“Thanks, Yan.” Donna was first to the food, the other three exchanging bewildered looks as they followed her.
“Yes, thank you…” Harriet trailed off expectantly, raising an eyebrow at Rose as she put some salad on a paper plate.
“Oh! Of course. Um, Harriet, this is my boyfriend John, and… I honestly have no idea.”
Donna snorted. “Pretty boy is Jack, he’s a friend of ours, and this is Ianto. Hopefully here to be our barista?” she smiled sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes up at Ianto and making him laugh.
“Certainly.”
Everyone filled a plate, relaxing at the conference table to eat and chat. Settling down with John next to her, Rose grinned to see her team come alive again. Using her left hand to eat, she laid her right on his thigh under the table, squeezing in thanks. Glancing at her he grinned, taking her hand with his as they ate.
After an hour Jack cleared his throat, smiling as the laughter from his last story died down. “Now, I believe we’ve taken up enough of your time and recharged your batteries. We can go if you’d like to get back to work.”
Donna bolted upright, eyes going wide. “Jack!”
“Donna!”
“I’m an idiot!” she gushed. “You used to work for Yvonne Hartman, didn’t you?”
Jack and Ianto exchanged glances. “We both did, why?”
Rose followed Donna’s train of thought. “Oh, perfect! We can’t confirm or deny if she’s a client of ours, but would you mind if we bounced some ideas off you that she might like?”
Jack’s eyebrow raised, but he nodded. “Absolutely. What’s going on?”
The week passed slowly, Rose spending the majority of her time at the office and coming home only to sleep. John took the opportunity to greatly extend his office hours, and was pleased that most of his students stopped by at least once.
When he would finally pack up he’d call for takeaway, stopping by Rose’s office so she could take a break and they could eat together. The team had been good for brainstorming, but Rose was handling most of the work to keep consistency. He would fill their dinner hour with teaching anecdotes and stories from his travels, doing his best to keep Rose laughing and at ease.
Once she’d get back to work he would pull out his laptop, sometimes taking up her couch or working at Donna’s desk if she needed the room to herself. He had plenty of his own work to keep busy with, and the hours would pass quickly until she was ready to call it a night.
When her alarm went off at five on Friday morning, he wrapped his arm around her waist to keep her against him.
“Jo-ohn, I’ve gotta go,” she whined, nonetheless happily rolling into his chest and burrowing down.
“In a minute,” he promised, “just need a morning cuddle. And to talk to you.”
“Mhmm?”
“Can you come home after your presentation?”
Rose tensed in his arms for a minute, before sighing. “Depends on what Yvonne decides.”
“You’ve had a long week, and you need a break,” he said firmly. “The rehearsal’s tonight, the wedding tomorrow, and you should decompress first. Even if it’s to come home and nap.”
“Is that your suggestion as a doctor?” she teased, pressing a kiss to his bare chest.
“Yep.” He patted her bum before releasing her. “Think about it, I’ll be here all day unless a crisis comes up.”
Rose rolled out of bed, stretching her arms above her head before moving towards the shower. “I’ll text you one way or another.”
Watching her bum sway as she moved, he wished the wedding would be over soon so he could finally follow her in.
Two more days.
John looked up from the textbook he was reading, brow furrowed. Music was coming from the hall, but before he could go see what it was, the song coalesced into We Are the Champions, and he stood grinning as Rose burst into the flat.
“-keep on fighting, til the end!” Kicking off her heels and dropping her purse at the door, she sprinted towards him and leapt into his arms, laughing.
“I take it the presentation went well?” he rumbled, holding her tighter as she sprinkled kisses over his face.
“It went perfectly,” she gushed, wrapping her legs around his waist. “She loved it! She’s still a bitch for making us redo it all at the last minute, but honestly this was even better than the original and she’s going to keep us and I got a raise and I love you so much!”
John laughed, returning to the couch and settling down with her in his lap. “That’s amazing, love. Congratulations.”
“Mhmm.” She kissed him leisurely. “And I know I’ve already got next week off but Harriet’s going to give it to me without using my time, so I am all. yours.”
“You weren’t already?”
“Oh, shut up.” Rose was smiling too hard for him to take her seriously though. “All we need to do is get through tonight and tomorrow, then we are off to Bermuda for a week.”
John hummed. “Sand, sun…”
“Sex,” she corrected sternly. “Play your cards right, and I’ll let you out of bed to eat. Maybe.”
“Sounds perfect.”
They snogged, hands roaming and clutching long enough to be breathing hard when they finally pulled away. “What do you say we head to the hotel early?”
John smiled and pointed at the bags waiting by the door. “Say the word, my love.”
They were able to check in when they got there, and Rose threw herself onto the bed with a laugh, pleased when she bounced. “We’ve got four hours before we’re supposed to meet, whatever shall we do?” she teased, giving him her best ‘come hither’ look.
John joined her on the bed, stretching out next to her with an amused smile. “You were asleep in the taxi, love,” he said gently, putting his hand on her hip. “I think a nap’s in order.”
She pouted, sticking out her lower lip. “Haven’t we waited long enough?”
He groaned, leaning forward to capture it between his own. “Temptress. A little longer won’t kill us. Let’s get through the rehearsal dinner, yeah? Then see what happens tonight.”
“Mhkay.” Cradling the back of his head with her hand, she pulled him with her as she lay down. “Kiss me to sleep?”
The last thing she remembered was his tongue in her mouth and hand on her bum.
They walked into the ballroom arm in arm, stopping just inside the doors as Rose gasped. “This is beautiful!” Nearly all the decorations were up except the flowers, which were due for delivery the following morning.
The wide aisle was marked with three sets of three-foot high pillars, waiting for vases of white roses. Candles lined the space between the pillars; for safety reasons they were battery-operated candles, but Rose suspected the visual would be no less stunning because of that. At the end of the aisle stood a dais with a frame, sheer white drapes drawn back and secured with ribbons.
They were still early despite being the last ones there, and her brother was the first to notice them.
“Rosie!” he shrieked from the front row, racing down the aisle to fling himself at her. “You’re here!”
“Of course I’m here, silly, I’m in the wedding too,” she teased, swinging him up into her arms as they moved towards the rest of the group. “You remember John.”
“Hi.” Tony waved with a grin.
John smiled. “How’s it going?”
“Good! My Rosie’s here now.” The boy nodded seriously, and Rose coughed to hide a laugh as John winked at her.
“I know exactly how you feel, mate.”
The rehearsal seemed to take forever, though Rose didn’t know if that was because of the wait for dinner or the expectation of what might happen with John when they were finally alone again.
They spent most of the practice sharing smiles, making it difficult to concentrate on anything else. Being the lowest ranking members of the wedding party worked in their favor; they walked first, stood at the end of their respective lines, and had zero responsibilities during the ceremony itself. A few times Rose caught glares from her mother, but she ignored them in favor of making faces at John in a bid to get him to laugh.
When the rehearsal was finally over and it was time for the dinner, they held tightly to each other as they followed the group to the hotel’s restaurant. They were in a private room, still a rather intimate group at fourteen around a single, long table.
Once they ordered came the toasts. As the hosts of the dinner, Rose’s father stood and said a few kind words about Mickey, and by some miracle managed to keep her mother from speaking as well.
Mickey’s toast was funny and poignant, and Rose leaned into John’s side as she blotted away tears while they raised their glasses.
“All right?” he murmured, wrapping an arm around her back and pulling her closer.
She nodded, smiling up at him. “I’m just so damn happy for him. He deserves the world, and I think Martha’s the answer to that.”
“Agreed.”
The dinner went quickly, jokes and personal stories flying from every corner. Rose spoke about when she and Mickey were children, while John shared stories from trips he and Martha had taken with Doctors Overseas, highlighting her bravery and calmness under pressure.
Due to the early morning the group split not long after dessert, though by mutual agreement John and Rose headed for the hotel bar instead. Settling together at a table near the edge of the dance floor, they ordered wine.
“To the happy couple,” John toasted, holding up his glass.
“May they have a long and happy life together,” she added, clinking their glasses before sipping. “I still find it a little hard to believe, Mickey getting married. I think I half expected him to be a perennial bachelor.”
“That’s what Donna’s always said about me,” he snorted, leaning closer. “Look at us.”
“Mhmm.” Rose slid her chair a little closer, tangling her legs with his under the table. “Not planning on permanent bachelor-hood, then?”
“I think I found an acceptable alternative.” His palm was warm on her knee, thumb rubbing back and forth at the inner crease of the joint and making warmth pool low in her gut that had nothing to do with the alcohol.
“Is that so?” she murmured, and they met in the middle for a chaste kiss. When they pulled apart a band was setting up on the small stage, a singer dressed in forties garb talking to the bartender. “Looks like there’s about to be music.”
John merely took her hand, waiting until the singer introduced herself and the first strands of music began to play to say, “May I have this dance?”
“Of course.” Rose let him pull her to her feet, stepping into his arms just as she recognized the song, smiling. “At last,” she sang softly in his ear as they swayed, “my love has come along.”
“My lonely days are over,” he took it up, “and life is like a song.”
Rose let herself sink deeper in his arms until they were pressed tightly together, barely moving to the music. The song felt like the sign she hadn’t known she’d been waiting for, but nothing had ever felt more right than this moment.
She loved this man with all her heart, trusted him without hesitation. He’d long since proved himself to her, shown the true depth of character she’d seen hints of the first time they were together. Her doubts were gone, having evaporated months ago, and any last stubborn spots were wiped clean by how he’d handled the previous week. Never pressuring her in any way, never suggesting she do anything other than what she needed with the exception of getting more sleep, he took care of her, being there when she needed him and waiting patiently in the wings if she didn’t.
This was it; this was their moment.
At last.
As the final strains of the song faded out, she went up on tiptoe to whisper in his ear. “John?”
“Yes love?”
“Take me to bed.”