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Rose snored softly against his shoulder. The Doctor watched her eyes move beneath her lids, dreaming about... Was it too much to ask if he was in those dreams? Nah.
They'd spent the last six hours talking. Well, there'd been one or two other things in there as well, but mainly they'd talked. Talked about everything and nothing. He hadn't planned on telling her some things, but a lot came tumbling out.
He knew that she'd been up for thirty-six hours straight, working with her Torchwood scientists when they'd discovered a new rift, and so it wasn't surprising that her eyes began to get heavy around the retelling of Donna encountering a dinosaur. He clutched Rose's hand which had loosened when sleep finally came, and scratched at his face with his other hand.
He was getting scruffy. It certainly wouldn't do for Rose to wake up to stare at a mountain goat. Mountain goats didn't get kissed, and that was logic that was hard to dispute. The Doctor carefully lowered Rose down onto the sofa and hurried off to the bathroom.
He'd barely gotten started shaving when he heard a noise behind him.
"Hello." Rose gave him a sleepy smile. She sat down on the floor, her back against the wall.
"You're eventually going to have to sleep more than an hour, you know."
"Mmm hmm. Eventually."
"Why don't you go back--"
"It's been two years, three months and sixteen days since I've watched you shave."
A flood of memories hit him, but he said lightly, "Wouldn't want you to be deprived of that wonder, now would we? I've always liked this bone structure, myself. Quite fascinating to work with."
It had been a habit they'd gotten into, back even before he'd had this body. Rose wandered in one morning, sat down and started talking to him. At first he was a bit thrown by it, and wondered if he should return the favor when she was shaving her legs or something. Soon he couldn't imagine the day starting any other way. There had been a few seconds of hesitancy after he regenerated, but it wasn’t long before they fell back into the same habit.
“Um, Doctor?”
He glanced at her in the mirror. “Hmm?”
“I think you’ve done that side of your face three times.”
“Oh.” He felt a bit like an idiot.
Rose pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, smiling fondly at the back of his head. “Glad you need me for something.”
The words were out before he could stop them. “I need you for everything.”
Rose swallowed hard, but only said, “Tell me about it.”
He met her eyes in the mirror and tried for a smile. She smiled back.
“So…” she began as he started in on the other side of his face. “Where are we going to go first? It’s been a while, you know.”
He considered. Well, nothing dangerous was a given. And certainly nothing that involved hostile aliens, running for their lives, or saving the planet—any planet. He considered locking Rose in her bedroom, but she was probably smart enough to figure a way out. Bugger.
“Um, star-gazing?” he suggested. “I know just the place. Have you ever been to Wyoming?”
“The planet?”
“Nope,” he said. “The state! Very empty and secluded. You’ll love it.”
Rose frowned in confusion, but before she could say anything, the door to the bathroom crashed open and Donna wandered in, one hand covering her eyes and the other blindly reaching out in front of her.
“DON’T LET ME INTERRUPT YOU! JUST NEED TO USE THE LOO. YOU WON’T EVEN NOTICE I’M HERE.”
“What on earth...?" the Doctor stopped shaving and blinked. A few times.
“NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE I’M GOING. CARRY ON, THEN.”
She crashed into the garbage can, which promptly fell over and spilled tissues all over the floor. The Doctor pinched the bridge of his nose and sent Rose an apologetic look. She had her hands clamped over her mouth to keep from laughing.
“Donna!” he said, raising his voice. “We’re decent.”
She peeked one eye out from between her fingers and then, finding them both fully clothed, dropped her hands back to her sides and said, “Oh.” And then, “Well, I need to pee.”
“I can see that,” he said. “Um… you are aware that the TARDIS has a near infinite number of toilets, aren’t you?”
Donna didn’t answer. Instead, she glanced at Rose curled up on the floor to where he was standing with the razor dangling over the sink. “You’re not shagging.”
Rose shrugged. “We’re talking.”
“Yup,” the Doctor said.
Donna’s eyebrows shot up. “You’ve been locked in here for near six hours and you’re only talking?” She shook her head. “Typical.”
“Oi, what’s that supposed to mean?”
Donna looked back and forth between them. “All I'm saying is, if the love of MY life popped back in from a parallel dimension, I’d have better things to do than talk."
She stomped over to the toilet and unzipped her jeans. The Doctor yelped and chucked the razor in the sink. There was no way he could leave the bathroom fast enough. He bent to grab Rose’s hand on the way out and then slammed the door closed, leaning against it heavily when it clicked into place.
He glanced at Rose. She didn’t look happy. “Wyoming?” she said.
She was being completely irrational about this whole thing. Honestly. “I suppose it is a bit empty, isn’t it? What about North Dakota? Vermont?”
Rose folded her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrows.
“Not a fan of the United States, then, are you?” He paused. “Ever been to Iceland? Fascinating place, Iceland. Met a bug person there once. Nice bloke. Could have done without the fried larvae, though.” He shuddered.
The bathroom door slammed back open.
“I’M COMING OUT!” Donna hollered. “AND I CAN’T SEE ANYTHING, DON’T WORRY.”
The Doctor dived out of the way. Donna moved past them, arms flailing out in front of her.
“We’re still wearing clothes!” Rose snapped.
Donna opened her eyes and stumbled to a stop. She eyed them in disappointment. “You know,” she began slowly. “When my friend Mildred’s fiancée survived that fishing accident, they disappeared into the bedroom and shagged for a week. Of course,” Donna added after a pause, “he turned out to be a right bastard. Left her for a younger woman.”
“Well, with a name like ‘Mildred…’”
Donna shot him a glare and the Doctor clamped his mouth shut.
Her expression turned thoughtful. “Next thing you know, he’s walking down the street and a pigeon poops on his head. He died from an infection two days later. I’ll tell you what, he got what was coming to him.”
“That’s horrible,” Rose said. “He died?”
Donna nodded solemnly.
The Doctor reminded himself why he kept Donna around. True, she had saved his life once or twice—mostly by acting as a loud distraction—and her mum did make those warm biscuits with chocolate chunks that he liked. And all right, she’d helped bring Rose back, which counted for a lot.
“Hold on,” Donna said, expression indicating that she was having an important realization. “Is it an alien thing? D'you even have the right set of equipment for—”
The Doctor cleared his throat. Loudly. “Donna, go down to the pool or something, will you? Just… go away. Please.”
“Oi, I was just trying to help. Go at it on your own, then, Grumpy Pants.”
She slammed the door shut behind her.
The Doctor gave a relieved sigh. By his reckoning, it had been a full twenty minutes since he’d last touched Rose. Pulling her away from Donna - saving her, really - didn’t count. And twenty minutes was way, way too long. In a few seconds, he’d made his way over to her and gathered her up in a hug. She relaxed and pressed her nose to one cheek, breathing in experimentally.
“Nicely done,” she said thoughtfully. “Very smooth.”
“Thanks!”
She leaned in and kissed him. Mmmmpfff. Kissing Rose. That was nice. And also a bit stupid. Not the kissing Rose part, mind, but the part where they never snogged properly before she got pulled into a parallel world. That part was stupid.
Rose pulled away and he frowned at her. “What?”
“Lock the door?” she suggested.
“Brilliant idea.” He bounded over to it and dug out the sonic screwdriver. When he turned back around, he found Rose furiously trying to hold back a yawn.
“I saw that,” he said.
She shook her head. “I’m not tired at all.”
“Yes, you are,” he said. He pushed away his disappointment. “Listen—” He grabbed her hand and then led her to the bed. “Get some rest. I’ll be here when you wake up.” He sat down on the bed and then pulled her into his arms. “Right here. See?”
She smiled and then curled up against him. “What if I drool on you?”
“I’ve had worse.”
She closed her eyes. “Wake me if you go anywhere.”
“I will.”
Blimey, they were turning into one of those annoying couples always joined at the hip. Maybe they should get permanently attached and get on with it. YES! Brilliant! Because then if she got pulled into a parallel world again, he’d have no choice but to go with her. The only question was, Where to get attached? As best as memory served—and he did have an extraordinarily good one—these operations could be very painful.
He thought about it. Feet were out—that would make running nearly impossible. Hips, while initially a good thought, would make it difficult to maneuver out of tight spots. Definitely not hands, he needed his free for too many things.
OH! An elbow! That didn’t sound so bad.
Rose’s voice interrupted his musings. “Stop it.”
He blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“You’re thinking too loudly.”
“WHAT? I am not… no one can think too loudly, Rose. You’re making things up.”
She sniffed. “I can tell.”
“I’m planning our trip to Iceland. Now go to sleep. It’s not safe to eat fried larvae when you’re tired.”
Rose looked skeptical, but shut her eyes again.
Maybe he wouldn’t share the attached-at-the-elbow plan just yet. Best to let Rose come to the realization on her own.
"It wasn't all life-and-death, you know," Rose said softly.
Ooh, he was definitely going to have to get used to her uncanny ability to read him again. "Hmm?" Feigning ignorance was a brilliant option.
"There weren't Daleks around every corner or face-sucking aliens in every TV."
He let his fingers wind through her hair. "Could have fooled me."
"That meadow of purple flowers where harmless bugs were the only danger..."
"That meadow of red flowers where the Darjong arrived thirty seconds later to destroy the planet."
"But you talked them out of it. Oh, the rock formations on that salt marsh where we watched the birds fly..."
"The planet of the birds where we wound up in the middle of their war with the rock creatures," the Doctor countered.
"Problem solved with some simple perching rules, as I recall."
The Doctor sighed. "Rose, this - this danger - this is my life. It always has been and always will be. You can't sugarcoat it."
She looked up at him. "All right, then let's not sugarcoat it. This isn't just your life, it's mine too. Don't forget that."
Part of him wanted to do handsprings at those words, but the other part... "What if...some day..." he said slowly, "I can't keep you safe? Or there's another parallel world?"
"Then remember that I wouldn't have had it any other way. And you keep remembering that. I wish I could be with you for a million years. I really, really do. You have no idea. But I'd rather live this life to the fullest for..." she swallowed, "a short while, than sit locked away in the TARDIS for eighty years. I think you'd rather have that too if you thought about it."
"Maybe."
She wrapped her arm across his chest and closed her eyes again. "We can go to Wyoming. Or Iceland. For now. As long as I don't have to eat any larvae."
The Doctor chuckled softly as he brushed the hair from her face. "I recommend giving yours to Donna. That's my plan. We'll tell her it's sort of like chocolate. 'Sort of' being the key words in that sentence. Oh, she probably won't fall for it, but it's good to have plans."
A smile crossed her lips as she finally drifted off.