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“Doctor!”
The Doctor heard a whisper behind him, which was confusing since he was in the TARDIS’ galley and as far as he could tell there was no threat to be seen.
“Doctor! C’mere!” Rose was peeking out from the large walk-in pantry.
“What are you….”. He didn't finish the question due to being hauled into the pantry by the shirt sleeve.
“She can hear us, right? Everywhere we are, she can hear us?” Rose looked panicked.
The Doctor was becoming slightly frightened for Rose’s mental health. “Rose, who can hear us?” he asked carefully.
“Her! The TARDIS!”
“Welllll….yeah, she can, but why are you afraid of….”
Rose whipped a small spiral bound notebook and pen from the pocket of her hoodie and scrawled a note. She thrust it into the Doctor’s hand. He tore his eyes away from Rose's reluctantly (he was still trying to assess her well being.) “You said it was close to Christmas in my timeline, right?” Rose whispered.
“Yes…..”
He read the note. “We forgot to get the TARDIS a Christmas present!”
The Doctor’s eyes widened with surprise, then he began to chuckle in relief. The idea struck him funny and the chuckles turned into a full blown laugh.
“Doctor, I'm serious!”
“I just...never thought of….” He started laughing again.
“Maybe that's why she lands so roughly! Really, she provides all this for us and you've never…..?
“What would I get? I repair her when she needs it...I care for her and….”
“Lose her in pits beneath black holes,” Rose reminded him.
“Oh, that's low.” He crossed his arms and pouted.
“Just sayin’!”
“What would I even get her? She's well cared for, she’s fine. You don't get a car something for Christmas! Or your bike or any other form of transport!”
“She's more than that and you know it, Doctor. I can't imagine you'd ever take her for granted.”
The Doctor was beginning to feel ridiculous, having a domestic in a pantry so his time ship wouldn't hear. Which she could, regardless. She was definitely more than just a form of transport. And was that a feeling of disappointment coming off of the TARDIS in melancholy waves?
“I don't take her for granted, Rose. She's all I have left of Gallifrey. She's all I'll ever have. So, no, I don't take her for granted. I'll put some thought into it. Satisfied?”
Rose realized she'd crossed a line, and tried to backpedal. “I'm sorry…. I know you love her. And she's all you have left. Having said that, you just compared her to a car or a bike.”
“This row is ridiculous,” the Doctor scoffed. Rose raised her eyebrow. He huffed a frustrated breath and finally decided, “I'll think about it. Okay?”
“Okay. And I will also be thinking about it. Might ask her straight out. Maybe I don't have the major alien telepathy thing going on, but I can feel her moods and….”
“You can?” the Doctor squeaked in surprise.”
“Of course I can, can't everyone?”
The answer to that was of course, no. His mind was in too much of a whirl to expand on that thought, though. Really? She can….
“You're not answering me.”
“She especially likes you. More than me, most days,” he hedged. He felt that he really wasn't lying about that. “Let me give it some thought.”
******
The Doctor gave some thought, though not to what Rose requested. She could feel the emotions radiating from the TARDIS and that was something humans could not do. The average human was not wired in that way.
It appeared as though she was not wired in the normal human way any more. His TARDIS and his Rose were linked. Most likely through Bad Wolf, even though he’d regenerated to take that out of her.
What else could his time ship have done to her, (for her), he wondered. How much was still left in? Apparently, she wasn’t physically affected by it, meaning that either the effect was small enough to be of no consequence, or…
Her physiology has been changed enough, to change her.
“What did you do, Old Girl?” he muttered.
He sensed a wave of gleefulness, as if his TARDIS was giggling. She had a secret.
“I mean it, what did you do? Tell me now,” the Doctor demanded. “I need to know that she’s safe.”
The hum from his ship changed from gleeful to offended. “Your Rose is not in danger from me”, she was telling him. How dare he question it. “My Wolf belongs to us both. And I share my Thief with Rose.”
The Doctor, mind reeling with the ramifications of this revelation, tugged his fingers through his already messy hair as he paced back and forth around the console. “How did I miss this...of course, you shielded me. Right? You shielded me because I suspect I am on a “need to know basis.’ And I need to know now, right? Why?” He was as angry with himself as he was with the TARDIS. He’d been too distracted, trying to put distance between himself and Rose. Too many distractions since Sarah Jane had made him blind to what was going on in front of him. “Hell, even before Sarah Jane. I should have known when she survived the psychograft with Cassandra with no lasting negative effects. I was relieved that all she had was a migraine afterwards.”
He’d made many orbits around the console, quickly enough to dizzy most people if they’d watched him. “Why do I need to know now!” he shouted to the ceiling.
The Doctor sank to the jump seat, knowing that the only thing to do was to examine the time lines. He never liked to look at Rose’s, knowing how he felt about her, and how short it would likely be. But this time he closed his eyes and reached out. HIs timeline stretched on and on, of course. The pink thread of the line, entangling with his, was Rose’s. It was fused to his. There was no distinction between his and hers, they were melded together. He saw a place in the near future where time was in flux, and he felt a danger, a warning, (a storm) there. But beyond that, the timeline continued. “You will weather the storm,” his ship revealed.
And the line continued on. “And on, through space and time. You keep running. That is what the Wolf desired. You will weather the storm.”
The Doctor’s eyes popped open. He blew out a breath, his Time Lord brain processing all the ramifications. His hearts beat rapidly, and he his hands were shaking as he ran his hands through his hair again.
“Doctor?”
Rose stood in the corridor, unsure of what else to say. He looked so anxious, so upset. They locked eyes and she realized there was something else besides the anxiety.
He stood, and took a hesitant step toward her. “Rose,” he breathed.
She recognized it then. Hope. Desire, perhaps. Then he was there, standing toe to toe with her. He picked her up in a joyful embrace, swinging her back and forth just as he’d done when they reunited after Krop Tor. But instead of putting her down and busying himself as he’d done then, he tilted his head and suddenly his lips were fused to hers, as ke kissed her desperately.
Rose melted into the kiss, unable to do much more than hold on and feel the sensation of his lips on hers, his tongue begging entrance.
After a while, perhaps moments, or years, she needed to breathe and he set her down, cupping her cheek. “Not that I’m complainin’,’ she started shakily, “but weren’t we havin’ a row a bit ago, and now…..”
The Doctor laughed joyfully. “I think I figured out the perfect gift for our TARDIS. I’ve decided that new parts are not the way to go.”
“And snoggin’ me is?”
“I believe that’s what she wants, yeah,” the Doctor assured her. “And Rose...she gave us a gift. I didn’t realize it until now, but she’s been giving it to us since...Bad Wolf.”
Rose’s eyes widened at his declaration. An echo in her own mind, a memory, surfaced suddenly. Bright light, the sensation of burning inside, the feeling of unlimited power. “I know,” she gasped. “Just now, I….”
“Remembered?”
Rose nodded, stunned.
“I think you and I need to go to the infirmary,” he suggested, and she agreed because it seemed the right thing to do.
They had to wait an hour to get the results from the full battery of tests.
But really, what was an hour, compared to the centuries they had together?
The TARDIS was satisfied with the gift she was given. Her Thief and her Wolf were together, as she wanted. Her gift to them had given him the courage to finally confess his feelings. No more waiting, no more distance between them. They formed a bond that very night.
It was very useful on their next adventures, (although the Doctor would still have to improve his communication skills. Particularly when communicating which color bucket to use.) And he would be just as distracted as ever, (particularly when parking the TARDIS between garbage skips. To be fair, Rose did accept responsibility for her part in distracting him.)
When the storm came, they weathered it. As they huddled against the white wall, together, relieved that they’d survived it at all. They had a very long life together, the Thief, The Wolf, and their TARDIS.