Peppermint Santa gift for Merryoswald!
Rose Tyler woke up in her flat four months after all saving the universe. She had both of her parents, and a little brother. Her mother's needs were cared for. Mickey was happy back in his home universe. She had a job that didn't rely on her A-levels that she honestly enjoyed.
“Care for tea this morning?” Dr. John Smith poked his head into her room, all bright eyes and beaming grin. This had to be the best part of this universe. It may not be exactly like traveling with the Doctor, but he made every day as special as one on the TARDIS. She had her Doctor once more, in all the ways that mattered.
Though the dry throat this morning was something she could live without. “Feel like I've swallowed sand,” she hoarsely replied as she nodded. Instantly, her door was opened further, and John was tilting her head back slightly, gently probing at her throat.
“Tea should do you good, and working from home should help you get better quicker.” He kissed the top of her head quickly before grabbing a random top from her dresser and tossing it at the bed. “Go ahead and get dressed in something comfortable in case they have to conference call you.” Well, at least she wasn't infected with some strange spore in one of the newest relics they'd found.
At the kitchen table, Rose finally unstuck her throat and asked, “so, did that new fancy item come in that you were looking for?”
“What looked like a battle spear from the third century, thought to be from the Palmyrene Empire, with scars and radiation on it? Yes. Sorry dear, have to rush off to work. I can't wait to get my hands on that. You know to take the vitamins over there. Tea will do you good. I'll try to come back during lunch.” With another kiss, he was off. Rose understood. He had the mind of the Doctor in the body of a human. Any new information about the past, especially if there could be aliens involved, was what could turn a 6 hour work day into an 18 hour work day. But there was nothing wrong with passion. Just in the few months he'd been here, John had been able to save a small country with negotiations with an alien race.
At first, it would confuse and irritate Rose to no end. He would offer to cook dinner, only to stumble in the door 6 hours late, exhausted and gleeful, sometimes with goggles on his head. It took a rather intense fight two months in for John (he had insisted on a proper name, though a month of constantly changing names had made Jackie set her foot down and start calling him by one name, which the rest of the family quickly took up) to understand what Rose was trying to say. Perhaps it had been rash of her to go out with a few friends last minute, get drunk, and stumble into the flat at an absolutely unreasonable hour. She didn't remember much of that particular fight besides tears, shouting, and more than her fair share of confessions. But she did remember waking up the next morning with John wrapped around her, a positively pounding head and queasy stomach preventing her from lifting her head or doing much beyond moaning. Yet there he was, easing her into a sitting position and tipping a glass of water to her lips, migraine pills in his other hand. When the worst of the hangover subsided, he spoke softly and gently about their fight, apologized for his running off, and promised to do better in the future.
Due to good luck or John mentioning that she was at home with a sore throat, the paperwork was easy to fill out at home and fairly mindless. Though as the day went on, the tea stopped being as magical as it was in the morning, and a chill began to creep into the house. Despite the raised thermostat and a house robe, the chill still remained. Rose rolled her eyes at the heater and tried once again to finish the bit of paperwork she needed to finish. Though her body seemed to consider a nap as the better option. After several more valiant minutes of fighting her need to sleep, she curled up on the couch with a new mug of tea, her house robe, and a thick blanket.
~~~~~
John checked the clock once again. Technically he was getting off an hour early, but one of his colleagues had been able to catch the spare hour. Not to mention the fact that he wanted to check back in on Rose. He'd sent her a few messages during the day, but she'd stopped texting him around lunchtime. While it was possible she was simply absorbed in her work, he preferred to know for himself.
When John opened the door, he immediately felt how warm the flat was. Rose seemed to have cranked the thermostat up in some attempt to sweat out the virus. But when he stepped into the living room, he saw that she clearly needed his help. She lay on the couch, wrapped in a thick blanket and shivering, a small pile of tissues nearby. A quick hand on her forehead was quickly retracted. She was burning up with a fever. He threw open some of the windows in the flat in an attempt to cool it off as he grabbed a bowl, filling it with cold water and soaking a towel in it.
The moment he laid the towel across her forehead, she began to rouse from sleep. Rose began to shiver harder than before, hand leaving her blanketed form to try to push the towel off. “Easy Rose. You need to keep that on,” John soothed, running his hand over her arm to calm her while placing the towel against her forehead once more.
“I'll be right back,” he promised as he stood and crossed over into the kitchen. He quickly grabbed the immune booster supplement, as well as general cold medicine. By the time he returned, her shivering had gotten worse. “See, I'm right back. This is all medicine that will help you feel better. You need to take all of it.” Rose groaned as he shifted her into a sitting position and tipped the medicine down her throat along with more tea to help get her voice working again.
“Don't,” Rose insisted when John tried to cool her forehead again. “Too cold.” The shivering began to take hold with a vengeance, worsening as Rose tried to stop herself from shaking.
“Easy, trying to get rid of the chills isn't that easy. Don't fight it. Just let go of the control. I know it's scary, but I'm right here with you. I'll make sure you don't hurt yourself.” With chattering teeth, Rose nodded, and he could see her work to unclench her muscles. John rubbed his arms up and down her arms, encouraging her progress as the shivering slowly dialed down. It picked up again when he pressed the towel to her neck, covering her pulse points with the cold cloth and wringing a gasp from Rose, but time and soothing words, the shaking receded again. After several minutes of John quietly checking Rose over with the small med kit they kept in the bathroom, Rose spoke up.
“Visited you at work. You said you were busy. Didn't even turn around. You were trying to build another TARDIS.” Something deep in his chest broke, remembering Rose's bitter accusation of spending time with his work to escape her. And so he gathered the Defender of the Earth into his arms and held her as tightly as he could.
“No. No, that was just a fever dream. I'm not building a TARDIS. I'm not leaving. I left early from work because I was concerned. I care, Rose. Deeply.” He stroked her back, desperate for her to understand.
“You love being at work. You love nothing more.”
“Wrong. I distinctly love you more. I was distracted all day.” He kissed her hair and felt her smile against him. “Now, I'm going to call the doctor and have him drop by later today. I'm going to get this cold again.” He dipped the towel back in the bowl of water, draping over Rose's forehead when he was done. “I know it's not fun, but it's good for you. I can't have you getting too warm.” He kissed her cheek in consolation. “Then I'm going to text Jackie and see if she can drop some supplies off tomorrow. I know she'll want to take care of you, but the last thing you'll want is too many people doctoring you at once. Besides, she has Tony to take care of too, and the last thing she needs is to bring the flu home to him.” Rose nodded softly, eyes beginning to droop from her exertions. “And I have just the thing to hold us over for now.” John stood, walked over to the telly, setting in a DVD. “How about some classic Disney to soothe you?”
Rose smiled back at him from the couch, and John took that as a 'go ahead'. So he put in a DVD, grabbed the remote, and squeezed in to serve as a large pillow for Rose to lay against. They both knew she would fall asleep before the movie was over, and that was part of the plan. The best part of it was the sustained contact John had with Rose, holding her close and smelling her shampoo. Maybe now their relationship could truly begin to move forward. John smiled and watched the animated characters dance across the scene.