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Rose is barely up the tube steps when she spots the Doctor leaning against a lamppost, a mischievous smile on his face and what she hopes is a paper bag full of chips in his hand.
She smiles, walking up to him, and pecks him in greeting, inhaling his scent as she does so. She’s knackered after her day of work and though she spent her commute daydreaming of jammies and takeaway, the reality of finding the Doctor waiting for her assures that her evening is off to the perfect start. Not wanting to pull away, she burrows her face into his chest, thankful for the extra warmth of his coat.
"You know, some people would find it creepy that you knew just when to be here."
The Doctor frowns and runs a hand over the back of his neck. "Is this not a good thing to do then?”
“Oh no, this is an excellent thing to do. Just wondering how you knew. Couldn’t get through to you when I rang you.”
“Ah, Pete called as I was parking the car - something about a Pramgatang primate that surfaced in Torchwood Tower after you left for the day."
Rose frowns and pulls out her phone. "No one called me about that. Do they need me to go back?"
"No! Pete just wanted my advice on its natural diet. They have it all under control. It just took a little time to explain."
"Are you sure?"
"Quite. They're very quiet creatures, Pramgatang primates. Delightful really. I once spent an entire weekend on Pramgatang. It's a beautiful planet. Seafoam green skies, pale blue forests and all the bananas you could ask for. We should visit once the TARDIS is ready."
Rose smiles. "We will, and I promise I'll let you spend an entire afternoon in its banana groves, but how exactly did the Prama... Pramathong?"
"Pram-ga-tang."
"Right, how exactly did the Pramgatang gorilla-"
"Primate!"
Rose rolls her eyes. "Sorry, primate lead to you meeting me at the station? Not that I mind, mind you!"
"Welllll, I knew how much you were looking forward to the weekend so I thought we should start it off as soon as possible. A little Doctor, a few chips, maybe a little romp in the park?"
Rose's eyes widen and she begins to smirk when he realizes what he said.
"Of course by 'romp', I meant a picnic and a walk."
"Ah."
The Doctor clears his throat and nods. "Well unless you want..." He trails off as Rose rises on to the tiptoes of her flat boots to reach his ear.
"What I really want..." She pauses, trailing her fingers over the hand the Doctor has clasped around the paper bag until she hears his breath hitch. "... is chips."
He watches her with wide eyes as she leans back. She cocks an eyebrow and he snaps out of it, grinning lopsidedly at her. "Picnic then? I want to try that spot by the pond. Rumor has it that Dorothy Mithers came up with her best ideas for her trilogy while sitting there."
“Who?”
“Twenty-third century playwright. She wrote some brilliant stuff. We can go see one of her plays, if you’d like.”
Rose nods, just as a shiver runs from her neck all the way down her spine. "I would like, but Doctor, right now it's freezing."
Smirking, he reaches into his trouser pocket and pulls out her favourite, bulky green scarf. “Would this help?”
She gratefully takes it from him and wraps it around her neck, burrowing her chin into the soft, almost-silky wool. She revels in the warmth, and the reprieve from the sudden autumn chill impairs the rest of her senses for two, three moments, but then she sighs, thankful for the size of the scarf when two and two click together.
"How did you..." She trails off, adjusting her neck to catch the glint of blue pinstripes under the streetlight. "Ah. Finally got your suit back from Mum, did you?"
He frowns and his mouth drops open. "Jackie said they'd been held up at the cleaning service. Particularly tough stains."
"Well if that's what Mum said..."
"Rose…?"
She holds his horrified gaze and bites down on her lip. "Oh all right. Mum made a bet with me after you fell asleep on the zeppelin back from Norway that she could get you to wear something other than pinstripes if I gave her six weeks."
“So she held my suit hostage?”
Rose nods and pulls the edge of the scarf over her mouth to cover the laugh she knows she won’t be able to suppress for much longer.
The Doctor sniffs dramatically. "And you? You just stood by as she kept me pinstripe-less?"
She thinks of the three identical suits hanging in their tiny, shared closet and guffaws. “I hardly think you’ve been deprived of pinstripe suits since getting here. I obviously bet that she couldn't. And took you to the shops as soon as we got back… where you picked out every pinstripe thing in sight. Need I remind you of the collection of pinstripe boxers in your drawer?"
The Doctor nods once and begins to grin as he catches her eye. "Well that explains the tenner she gave me to give to you."
He reaches into his other pocket and pulls out a rumpled bill.
“It does that.” Rose sniffs the air, the smell of fried potatoes wafting about her with the Doctor’s movements. "We should use that to get more chips. Those are probably getting cold."
"I sonic-ed them so they wouldn’t. Hungry, are we?"
Rose groans. "I got called away right before lunch. Didn't have time to stop and eat and by the time we got back, I got so caught up in the paperwork that I didn't even think."
"We can’t have that. Shall we?"
The Doctor wiggles his fingers in invitation, and Rose snakes her arm through his before threading their fingers together.
"Picnic in the park or at home?"
"Depends. Do you have a wool blanket of some sort in that pocket of yours?"
“I do.
“And room for me under your coat?”
"Of course."
"Park, then." She snuggles in closer and lightly lays her head against his shoulder as they make their way down the street. "I take it you went to see the TARDIS today?"
The Doctor nods, squeezing her hand. "I had lunch with Jackie and spent a few hours in the shed."
"How is she?"
"Not that different from last week. You know your mum. Ball of energy she is, and I have to say Tony's turning out to be just like her."
Rose chuckles, moving away just the slightest bit to make speaking easier. "I meant the TARDIS, Doctor. I spoke to Mum last night. You were there, remember?"
"Oh! Right. Well. I was rather preoccupied last night."
Rose rolls her eyes, remembering the pile of paper that had sat between them on the sofa as the Doctor had whittled away at Gallifreyan equations, much to her disappointment.
“So, the TARDIS?”
“She’s making good progress. I worked past the issues from yesterday, and she should be back on track by the end of the week.”
“So she’ll be fully grown by next Christmas?”
“Even before then, if everything goes smoothly! We’ll have all of time and space at our fingertips before we know it.”
Rose hugs his arm, and her voice drops the tiniest bit as she adds, “The Doctor, Rose, and the Tardis, just as it should be.” She pauses and pulls them aside just as they enter the park. “Doctor? Are you happy with this? Just stayin’ in London?”
The Doctor’s brows knit together, and Rose can just make out the panicked glint in his eyes under the feeble moonlight. “I - of course I’m happy. Aren’t you?”
“No, ‘course I am. I just thought that maybe you might want more until the TARDIS is ready? I could take leave. Haven’t really taken a holiday since I got here… well, aside from those two weeks last month. But I still have lots of time accumulated, and we could take off for a bit… if you want? We could travel. See what this world has to offer?”
“Is that what you want?”
“I… I miss traveling with you, yeah, but I’ve been happier than I’ve ever been over the past few weeks, and I… Oi, aren’t you the one supposed to be answering the questions?”
“Sorry.” The Doctor squeezes her hand and begins tracing featherlight patterns with his thumb as silence washes over them.
Years and universes ago, she would have worried that he was brushing off her questions… and years and universes ago, he would have been. The awkward half conversations of the months before they’d slowly, quietly gotten together still float through her memory. Now though, things have changed, and she knows that the Doctor needs time to formulate his thoughts before seemingly unrelated digressions run away with him and his feelings get pent up inside. She squeezes his hand in return and they walk on through the stillness of the park.
They pass one or two lone joggers and a group of teenagers drinking beneath the trees, and it isn’t until they reach the pond and spread out on the enormous woolen picnic blanket the Doctor had stuffed in his pocket that he finally speaks.
“If you want to travel, then I will gladly travel, and I will definitely want us to travel soon, but for now, for once, I think I’d rather stay in London.”
“You aren’t itching for adventure?”
“We’re having an adventure right now, Rose. I meant it - this, with you, is the one thing I thought I’d never be able to have, and the reality of it… falling asleep beside you every night and waking up to day after day of life with you is even better than I imagined it would be.”
Rose’s breath hitches, “Yeah?”
He nods and fixates on the barely visible plaid of the blanket. “The past few weeks may not have been very dangerous and we certainly haven’t done much running for our lives, but every moment has been an adventure, Rose, and I don’t think I’m ready for it to end yet.”
“Doctor, this isn’t going to end.”
“No, but everything’s so new now. Every tiny thing… sleeping in on Sundays, going to the shops, and meeting you after work to explore the city. Even bickering with your mum. It’s all fantastic, Rose!”
“Are you feeling alright, Doctor? Did Mum put something in your tea?” She starts off teasing, but the Doctor’s face falls and she groans. “Oh no. Mum said Tony’s been running about making ‘food’ out of silly putty. You didn’t eat something he gave you, did you? I told you that can’t just stick random things you find into your mouth to test them anymore.” She pauses as she watches the Doctor’s expression get progressively sulkier. “You did, didn’t you?” She sighs, running her hand through her hair and making the bun she’d hastily tied before leaving the office even messier. “We should probably get you to Torchwood. Owen said he’d be working late today.”
She begins to stand, but the Doctor gently places a hand on her wrist and she stills.
“I didn’t eat anything strange, Rose. I’m not touching anything Tony hands me ever again. Not after last time.” He pauses, shuddering, and Rose can’t help but do the same.
“So you meant all of that? You’re enjoying the domestics?”
“Well, I’d hardly call our life domestic. We stop alien invasions and help keep intergalactic peace! I don’t think there are many people who can say that. On Earth or elsewhere.”
“Isn’t what you were describing though. You were describing the domestics,” she teases, drawing out the word and giving him her lopsided grin. “I think I agree with you though - we don’t really do ‘domestic’ justice. We’re much too cool for that.”
The Doctor beams and nudges her back. “That we are!”
“So we stay and explore every inch of London, for now?”
The Doctor nods and holds up the paper bag that lays forgotten at their side. “And we eat chips.”
Rose moans and happily takes it from his hands. “Ugh, yes please.”
“And then I was thinking we could go to the Natural History Museum? I read an article about how they’ve just acquired fossils they’re claiming belong to a newly discovered genera, but that look a lot like the dinosaurs on Raptor 9.”
“Doctor, it’s eight in the evening. The museum closed hours ago.”
“Wellllll. I may happen to know the code to disable the security system.”
Rose snorts. “How do you know that?”
“It’s a long story.”
Rose motions for him to go on, chip in hand.
“Well, I suppose it isn’t that long. At least not that part of it. The Beckhams hosted a gala in the museum and Donna wanted to go... and we obviously weren’t invited, so I got us in through the back door.”
“Couldn’t you have just used the psychic paper?”
“I could have, but I’d just updated the passcode setting in the sonic and I wanted to test it out.”
Rose smirks. “And then what, you made her dress as wait staff to get in to the party itself?” The Doctor tenses up beside her, and she knows he hadn’t dared. “Doctor! You made me dress in a bloody French maid’s uniform to serve my parents mini cocktail pastries, and you let Donna go as a guest?”
“She would have killed me! Or yelled. You’ve never had Donna yell at you, Rose.”
She sniggers and pats him on the thigh. “Actually, I have. It’s okay though, Doctor. Working the party wasn’t that bad. We did access a lot of information that way. What happened, then?”
“We pretended to be celebrity paleontologists.”
Rose frowned. “And no one picked up on the fact that you weren’t?”
“Oh, they did. Donna shrieked when David Beckham went by and they caught on pretty quickly.”
“So what did you do?”
The Doctor sniffs. “They sent the little cage thingies they use on thiefs down on us before we could even run.”
“I bet Donna was thrilled with you after that.”
“Well it’s not like it was my fault we got caught!”
Rose laughs and pops the last chip in her mouth. “You reckon they’re using the same security code in this universe?”
The Doctor shrugs. “It was the same year, same month. It’s worth trying.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then we run.” The Doctor beams. “What do you say?”
Rose smiles back at him and nods. “I say we at least try. But if it doesn’t work, we go home or we go somewhere else. I don’t much feel like spending the night in a metal cage and having Dad come bail us out. Again.”
“Well, then.” The Doctor jumps up and offers her his hand. “Allons-y, Rose Tyler.”