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Rose Tyler had only been on the TARDIS for about two days now (of course she only had her watch and her own sketchy sense of time to rely on for that information), but she knew two things.
- The Doctor did not sleep much, if at all.
- She couldn’t sleep on the shabby couch in the ‘sitting room’ anymore.
It was called the sitting room because it was full of chairs and couches of varying degrees of discomfort. It wasn’t a very good joke in Rose’s opinion, but the Doctor had seemed to find it hilarious when he explained it.
Just after their jaunt with the Gelth and Charles Dickens - This is my life now, she thought to herself absently - Rose was changed into a pair of soft boxers and a large soft-pink t-shirt she’d found in the sitting room, and she was exhausted. She’d brushed her teeth in the bathroom that always seemed to be next to her when she needed it and now she went on a sleepy journey to find her friend.
“Doctor?” she called, headed in the direction she knew was the console room, but not sure HOW she knew that. It wasn’t a question she’d gotten around to asking. “Hello? Where are you?”
“In ‘ere,” came the reply from her left. She went in the open door to another new room. It was still taking some getting used to, the new rooms around every corner business. This was clearly a medical bay of some kind if only because it was sterile white. The Doctor’s shoulders seemed small without his large, leather jacket, and he was bent over one of the counters.
“You alright?” she asked, stepping in cautiously and looking around. The floor was warm under her bare feet.
“Yeah, jammed my finger tryin’ to fix a flux regulator an’ just needed a bandage,” he said as she came up to his elbow. There wasn’t much blood, but she clicked her tongue.
“Well that’s no good,” she said, taking his hand gently. “I’ll help you. Here, hand me a plaster.”
He looked at her then, and in the pure white cast of light, his eyes seemed impossibly blue. She swallowed, but kept her head down, trying to ignore the coil of lust in her belly and the blush on her cheeks. He was utterly overwhelming and he really had no idea and Rose loved him for that. He wanted nothing from her but to have her there and wasn’t that the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her.
“I used to have to do this all the time, you know,” she began, just to fill the silence. His hand was cool in hers, but the skin was soft. “My mate Shareen and I used to get into fights in school. We weren’t really...I mean...we could have been better. But I don’t like bullies and when no one else would stand up...well…” She finished wrapping his finger. “There, should be good as new in no time."
Rose looked up and saw he was still watching her, his face set in enraptured thrall. She cleared her throat and he reached up his hand and brushed a tuft of hair from her face and behind her ear. She repressed shiver.
“You’re a marvel.”
A long pause. Say something, Rose. Say anything! “Thanks.” Nailed it.
“You were lookin’ for me?” he asked, not moving out of her personal space. She wondered if he had any concept of it as an actual THING that people did.
“Erm, yeah, I was sort of hoping, since I’m staying and all that I could...I dunno...Have a room? Or at least a bed. I’m completely knackered and your sitting room couch is rubbish.”
He laughed at this. “Humans. Yeah, yeah we can find you a room. Let’s go.” He offered her his not damaged hand and they set off together into the depths of the TARDIS to find Rose a room.