Hot Patootie (Rose)

[The Doctor]

Of all the possible things to go wrong the TARDIS just had to just stop working. Not only was the Doctor letting Donna down, but he already had to turn down several calls for help down as well because his TARDIS was just refusing to run. Luckily for the Doctor she was sitting on top of the rift so he could charge (yet this was also unlucky for Jack as well as his Torchwood team because she was on top of their invisible lift which consisted of a perception filter created when the TARDIS first came to Cardiff, Wales). He sighted, and was getting a little angered as well as highly annoyed by his TARDIS who just didn’t seem to want to move. Sure he tried everything from fixing her, to pulling her apart and resetting her, to kicking her, yelling at her, speaking to her, doing various tribal dances, even singing… yet he got nothing, not a response, noda. Everything seemed hopeless, at the bottomless pit of despair where there were no calls for help. It seemed the Doctor would be stuck in Cardiff, Wales, Earth for the rest of his regenerations (which to him was no field trip or any fun at all). Of course Donna could just click her heels and go home any time she wanted too because it was her time period and her mum and granddad were just sitting around having their afternoon tea or whatever. Life truly was unfair.

He was at the point of pulling out his hair, yet the Doctor couldn’t bring himself to cause that sort of physical pain or even torture his blessed locks as such. He simply loved his hair too much to even consider doing it, yet he did because as the expression went all truly mad scientists did it therefore as a man of science he should too--- yet he didn’t. The Doctor kicked the console again in pure frustration. Donna was out doing who knows what, having the time of her life and here the Doctor was just being his grumpy old self (no pun intended as his older selves were grumpy) being childish over a matter to which he had no control over, that being his TARDIS. Grumping to himself in Gallifrain he officially lost his marbles (not literally as they were under ‘M’ in the storage compartments but figuratively speaking). What he really needed right now was a distraction, something or someone to cheer him up—someone exactly like Rose.

There was a faint knocking on his door. The Doctor though nothing of it as it had to be Torchwood—or Jack. He didn’t even bother bringing it up on the screen before him as he knew that knock. He muttered, “Come in,” and then when no one did he said it a little louder before muttering again to himself and opened the door. The Doctor paled at his visitor. His face became white as a ghost. Then he fainted in the doorway.

[Rose Tyler]

Rose wandered her way through Cardiff, trying to get her bearings again. God, it had been a while since she'd been in Cardiff. Even in her own dimension. She'd been so busy with Torchwood One she'd barely spared a thought for Cariff. Let Three handle it. They'd just get annoyed at them coming in and messing everything up anyway. We'll, they'd see it as messing.

Rose shook her head and looked around eagerly. She was sure this was it. They wouldn't have messed up te co-ordinates. No, they couldn't have. She'd checked them over herself. And this was the only other dimension she'd been too. She couldn't have ended up anywhere else, it just wouldn't have worked.

She yawned as she took in her surroundings. It had been a long few days. She'd come out in London, in the Torchwood building obviously, where she'd gone in, and had had to make her way here. The bubbly feeling in her stomach dimmed as she told herself that he wouldn't be here. The odds of that were...well, unlikely at best. He'd come though. With what was coming, he'd have to. She bit her lip as the water tower became visible. She had to warn them. It was the whole reason she'd come through in the first place.

Someone had to do it. The person that went through wouldn't be able to return, and it made sense for her to. Although it had been hard, so hard leaving Jackie and Pete. And little Tony.

As she rounded the corner, heading for the perception filter, she was struck speechless by what she saw.
No. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be. Something had gone wrong in the dimension shift, and she was loosing her marbles. Seeing what she wanted, what she needed to see most.

She ran up to the old wooden blue box, fighting the grin that was lighting up her face as she ran her hands over its worn surface. It seemed to be real. Fighting the urge to jump up and down, to scream out and throw her hands in the air, she banged eagerly on the door.

And grinned when it opened, to reveal a sorely missed familiar face.
She was just about to speak, or fling her arms around the Doctor, probably both, when he fainted dead on the floor.

"Men" she muttered, running over to his side, and slapping him gently across the cheek to bring him round. As his eyes fluttered open, she smiled, her brown eyes sparkling with happiness.
"Miss me?" she asked with a grin.

[The Doctor]

Physical forces amazing things. The Doctor came round around and fluttered his eyes open. He blinked and rubbed his eyes and was so tempted to pinch himself when he heard a lost voice wander into his mind. Miss her? He did more than miss her; he kept thinking about her comparing his various companions to her—perhaps he was over doing it. Maybe he needed a break from fixing the TARDIS. How could the girl of his dreams be here now. Her very essence here and now defied all basic understands of physics, quantum mechanics as well as all Time Lord Sciences which were beyond all Human understandings of the workings of the universe. Forget Super String Theory, black holes, wormholes, and quasars. Rose couldn’t be here, she just couldn’t unless she somehow obtained super advanced high technology from her parallel world--- was that even possible? Sure, but the Doctor had his doubts. Yet she slapped him which was his little wakeup call saying, ‘honey I’m home and I’m ready for all those adventures you promised me.’ He blinked again and just stared at her. Rose was here, she was right beside him and he was lying on the floor of the TARIDS looking like an idiot. At least he felt like an idiot to say the very least. Too bad the TARDIS was malfunctioning or he would grab Donna stuff her in the back of the TARDIS somewhere and take Rose to Barcelona –the planet not the city in Spain where the dogs literally had no noses- and show her the rest of the universe, and all of its wonders though time and space.

“Here you are, living a life day after day. The one adventure I can never have.”
“Am I ever going to see you again?”
“You can't.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I've got the TARDIS. Same old life. The last of the Time Lords.”
“On your own?”
He nodded.
“I... I... I love you.”
“Quite right, too. And I suppose... if this is the last chance I'll ever have to say it... Rose Tyler...”

“Long time no see,” he found himself saying. As it was a very long time since they left one another. Memories filled into his head and he found himself fighting back tears of joy. He never got to tell her that he loved her. The Doctor found himself stunned and at a lack of words. Here she was, his sweet Rose Marion Tyler sitting right by his side like the old days when they would go running around time and space without a worry in the world. They always made a great team and then here they were getting back together again. He had so many things to share with her, and he was almost sure she had a lot to tell him.

It was just he didn’t know where to begin. There was so much stuff and it was overwhelming.

Flashback © to RTD from “Doomsday”

[Rose Tyler]

Rose didn't know what to say.
It was understandable, of course. She'd not exactly planned for this. Hell, she'd been telling herself for the last two weeks that the odds of this happening were so slim she ought to stop considering them and keep her mind to the many tasks at hand.

She'd been so wonderfully, blissfully wrong.

She didn't know what to do as she knelt on the floor of the tardis, the man quite literally of her dreams laying next to her. Neither, it seemed, did he. It was funny, the Doctor normally never stopped speaking, and here he was, speechless. Rose, being Rose, soon started stressing. Maybe he wasn't talking because he didn't want to see her. Well, too bad. She was here now. And it couldn't be that. After all, he knew she loved him. She was pretty sure he felt the same.
But he'd never said the words...

Long time no see
Rose grinned, a little self-conciously. That was an understatment. Two years was a long enough time as it was, but every moment had stretched even longer. Unbearably longer.
"You know how it gets. I've been busy." she said with a shrug, glancing down at him.
"Are you going to lay down there forever? I don't even get a welcome hug?" she added after a moments pause.

[The Doctor]

He started up at her. She was so beautiful and he was still trying to believe that she was with him right now. They went through so much together, the Doctor did a lot with his companions he took them on all sorts of adventures to all sorts of strange places and yet with Rose it seemed somewhat different, then again it was very different with Grace was well because they were sort of like Rose was with him now—but that was several regenerations ago. The Doctor didn’t really know how to have a love life, he never had one it was always something like a snog, then running, then saving the universe it never was a settle down sort of thing and since he lost so many people thought the years he began to grow hard around the edges yet Rose changed this, she softened him up and tined his world with a rose colored hue.

“I’m sure you have been.” He said smiling up at her. Probably she was back to the old life eating beans on toast sort of thing and having a roast for Christmas, knowing her mum—oh wait her father was rich from the world she came back from so she probably wasn’t having beans on toast anymore---or maybe she was because she liked it. Sort of like the Doctor ate chips from chippies because he liked too. “Maybe you should join me; it’s so comfortable on the floor.” The Doctor noted. “Oh right er— course you do.” He found himself rolling up and embracing her into a sitting hug.

The Doctor still couldn’t come to say that he loved her. It just didn’t seem right. It was so obvious that he did and all yet he just couldn’t do it. Perhaps all of the pain of losing her again prevented him from doing such. In a way he wanted to just spill the beans but he wasn’t so fast on telling her. Perhaps it just wasn’t the right time to tell her, maybe if Rose brought the topic up or after they played catch up the Doctor would tell her. But now was not the time.

[Rose Tyler]

Rose returned his hug tightly, and grinned at the sheer awkwardness of it. But despite the odd positions they seemed to be in, him sitting and her kneeling, it didn't feel any less right. And that was odd, but comforting. It was almost like no time had passed, like there wasn't these slightly awkward silences she was noticing. She hugged him again, and jumped up to her feet, a role reversal in itself. Normally it was the Doctor bounding from place to place, trusting that she would catch up. She always did too. There was no way that she was going to let him go.
A pang of sorrow jolted through her stomach as she remembered that day she'd been forced to. She pushed it down. It was over now, she was back. No need to spare even a passing thought for that day.

She darted over to the Tardis console, noticing the absence of general life from the old girl. There was normally whirring and lights and whooping coming from every which way, but there didn't seem to be a single thing lit up.
"Is she okay?" she asked, looking over at the Doctor.

Suddenly she grinned again, turning to face him.
"What is wrong with us? I've been gone for three years and you're not saying anything! Surely you should be talking by now, at a hundred miles an hour, about some planet I've never even heard of, and about something totally unrelevant that happens there every blue moon and a half..." she trailed off, suddenly feeling a little put out. The situation was really starting to unnerve her. Had she done something wrong?

[The Doctor]

Hugging her back the Doctor felt like he finally belonged somewhere again. Something about holding her close and she holding him was comforting. Time meant nothing now; it was just a part of them wrapping their soles together into one. Right now he didn’t want the moment to end; he wanted the hug to last forever. Yet how could something last forever? Rose once promised him that she was going to travel with him forever and ever till the end of her days and then they got separated. A while later he saw her for the very last time—until this highly unexpected moment—where they said goodbye, she pronounced her love to him and he never got to finish his sentence about how he loved her. The hug ended and Rose was up on her feet and the Doctor remained fixed on the floor.

“She’s sick,” the Time Lord expressed feeling the TARDIS’s pain. He and her were connected; they could feel each other when they hurt, when they were in pain. His TARDIS was suffering, and thus so was the Doctor. The TARDIS was still, she made no moment as she hummed ever so faintly; so faintly the Doctor, who had stronger hearing than humans had to listen very closely to hear her hum. It was like she was trying to tell him something, yet he didn’t know what she wanted. He was willing to do anything for her, once he even gave a good ten years or so of his life for her. They were really close, their bind was thick as glue.

“Nothing, it’s just ---- now isn’t exactly the bestest of times for you to show up. I’m practically useless now that this old gal is….” He searched for the right word but couldn’t seem to find it in his mental dictionary of his mind. What he really was trying to tell Rose was he felt embossed seeing him with his TARDIS like this. The Doctor was a mess because the TARDIS was a mess, it was a chain reaction. “I just need some time is all.”

[Rose Tyler]

Rose frowned in sympathy.
If the Tardis was sick...well, that explained whole lot more than it didn't. The Doctor and the Tardis...well. she was more than just a ship to him. Rose knew that, better than most.
If the Tardis was sick, well, the Doctor wouldn't be much better. She walked back over to him, taking his hands.
"You'll work it out. You'll fix her. " she said with absolute certainty in her voice.
He was the Doctor. He always worked it out. She had no doubt that this time should be any different. And just imagine, him stuck in Cardiff for the rest of his lives. And who only knew how long that would be. It was just silly. The Doctor was supposed to be out among the stars.

[The Doctor]

She took his hands and he let her do so. The Doctor looked up at her as she spoke and he nodded. “I’ve tried everything. She just doesn’t wanna seem to budge.” He yearned to take Rose somewhere, anywhere even just simple time travel and met some really cool historical person like Teddy Roosevelt or Marie Curie. There were so many things he wanted to do with her yet the TARDIS kept him grounded and he was in no mind to go running over to NASA and become an astronaut because they would soon discover his secrete about being a Time Lord and things would be messy. Besides rocket science was over rated to him compared to his TARDIS.

Hastily he sided to change the subject, “Did you have lunch yet? I’m starving. There’s this really nice Chinese restaurant, it’s not exactly Ming China or anything but it’s pretty good.” Actually come to mention Ming China he never took Rose there he made a mental note to add that to the list of things to do. Or maybe he would take her to see the Huns, they were sort of like Ancient Rome which he showed Rose. She almost became a statue there but he saved the day by using the TARDIS to go meet Michal Angelo and made a sculpture of her which was currently sat in a museum in London, England.

Then he bounced up to his feet and smiled at her. She was the one person in the universe who could make the Doctor better, and maybe if he started cheering up the TARDIS would as well. Or maybe the TARDIS knew this would happen all along and was just acting up to make her Doctor well again. One would never know….

[Rose Tyler]

Rose grinned.
"Chinese?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "I never thought you were much of one for chinese." she said with a laugh. They'd eaten all kinds of things, from all kinds of places, and planets, during their travel, but when they were back home, here on Earth, they generally survived on chips. The Doctor loved them, and Rose was never one to complain. She grinned again, and started to lead him towards the door.

"Besides, I'm getting the feeling that someone needs to take you out for something to eat. Some fresh air will do you good." A thought occured to her, suddenly. The Doctor often had a companion, and she'd been gone for a few years...
"Are you by yourself in this big old thing, or have you picked up another no good girl off the streets." she said it with a grin, but she wasn't sure what she wanted the answer to be exactly. No, that was a lie. She didn't want to hear he'd been stuck by himself. As much as he denied it, the Doctor needed someone to look after him. But she was also a bit apprehrensive that she might have competition.