Chapter Text
You give me somethin"
I understand
You give me lovin
In the palm of my hand
I can't tell you how I feel,
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Jackie Tyler was an unapologetic Cliff Richard fan (and the Doctor still held that against her) but if you asked her who her music crush was she would answer firmly and definitely: Paul McCartney. Rose had grown up on his music. Her gran had been a Beatles fan and passed that to Jackie and Jackie's favorite was the "cute one" so she sought out all his solo songs and wore out a VHS copy of "Give My Regards to Broad Street." Rose had listened to his music from infancy. Beatles, Wings or solo, Rose had become a McCartney fan as well.
Rose had been thinking of her favorite songs, which had led to the TARDIS broadcasting through the wireless speakers in the TARDIS galley. She didn't know how
The TARDIS could play what was on her iPod without wires..or without the ipod being on for that matter, and she really didn't care to know.
She knew that the TARDIS also had musical preferences and would block boy bands and most rap music. Those playlists just wouldn't play.
"Band on the Run" was finishing up as Rose brewed tea and pulled the biscuits out of the cupboard. The next song, "Eight Days a Week," shuffled up and not for the first time Rose thought that the TARDIS might also be controlling the order of the songs played as well, particularly when she had a point to prove. The week after Reinette it was Cliff Richard all the time, just to torment the Time Lord. Even she and Mickey had gotten sick of it. She was pretty sure she hadn't put all those songs on the iPod to begin with.
The TARDIS was capable of broadcasting the music to one room or a multitude of rooms, depending on her mood. Sometimes she and the Doctor requested it, like after the Blitz in London when she and he danced the night away to Glenn Miller. Sometimes the TARDIS had a sense of humor and played songs like "Bad Moon Rising" "Werewolves of London" after Torchwood Estate. And she knew those weren't on the iPod. The TARDIS was just spooky like that sometimes.
She could tell that the TARDIS was playing the music all over the place from the echo in the hallways. That was fine, the Doctor enjoyed the Beatles as well. She found the biscuit tin she was searching for as the next song began- "She Loves You." She briefly wondered if the TARDIS was sending messages again. Not that her Doctor would ever admit to catching on, mind you. She couldn't believe that he was really that obtuse, that the signals she sent weren't coming through on some level, and she wondered if he would ever make any kind of move. Other than to distract, deflect and run with Tigger-like enthusiasm to another adventure. She sighed. She was committed to him for all of her forever and while it would be frustrating, she could deal. She just wanted a clear signal of what he intended. Yes or no, because being strung along with flirtation and flight was really wearing her down.
In the console room the Doctor hauled himself up from the underside of the the grating, sonic wedged in his teeth and wiring in his hands. He had reached a point where he couldn't get the repair done without going back to his workshop to find a couple of contrafibrulator sequencing bolts and 50 millimeter wire so his mind immediately turned to the tea and biscuits Rose had promised him thirty-two minutes and fourteen point five seconds ago. He was startled by the sound of sixties rock pouring out of the hidden speakers above the time rotor. "She Loves You." Rose was listening to her music again and the TARDIS had apparently decided to share.
"With a love like that, you know you should be glad," he picked up the lyrics and sang along absently as he wandered back to his toolbox to deposit the wires he had removed. "She loves you...."he trailed off. "Trying to send a message again, old girl?"
He knew when his time ship felt the need to randomly share she was trying to get a point across. It was one of her more pleasant ways, as opposed to locking him out of his own bedroom and dematerialing randomly so that he and Rose would have to take a room overnight in that roach motel in Philadelphia, 1978 that one time, when they had stayed up all night laughing and talking and definitely not shagging or anything like that. She didn't even have the decency to at least strand them two years earlier when the Bicentennial was going on and things were at least
interesting.
"Pride can hurt you too, apologize to her...."
Blimey! "And what precisely do I have to apologize for...today? As far as I know I haven't done a single wrong thing, at this point in the day. I have nothing to apologize for!" Except for perhaps leading her on and letting her down, there was that. And there were reasons and rules and centuries of separating themselves from other species deemed below the Time Lords.
She could never be considered beneath him. She was Rose, beautiful and brilliant and capable and why even have rules anyway?
Ah yes. Curse of the the Time Lords.
There would be a reason right there.
Fear was exhausting. He feared that she would leave of her own accord. He feared that the universe would rip her away from him. He feared that time would take her, she would grow old, die and leave him alone anyway. He was tired of expending energy on the fear.
And he was hungry. He sighed, wiped his hands on his trousers and went off to find the tea and biscuits.
The Doctor was distracted walking through the hall to the galley, so he didn't register that song had changed.
In the galley Rose was arranging jammy dodgers and singing along to one of her favorite Paul McCartney songs. She loved the blusey guitar, the growl of his voice. And the words...well, they were hitting home a little more than usual. She swayed her hips too, in time with the sensual beat.
"You give me somethin"
I understand
You give me lovin
In the palm of my hand
I can't tell you how I feel,
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you...."
Of course, that would be the moment the Doctor chose to charge into the kitchen.
She was a picture. Totally unaware of her audience she sang, swaying her hips. She was clad in a pair of faded denim capris and the shirt she wore when she hung from a barrage balloon during the London Blitz. Her hair was piled on her head in a messy bun. He thought he had never seen anything lovelier. She took his breath away and suddenly the doubt from before didn't seem important any more.
"I want to tell you, and now's the time
I want to tell you that you are going to be mine..." She suddenly made eye contact with the Doctor and trailed off ,suddenly mortified to be caught out. She blushed and dropped her eyes.
"You have a gorgeous voice, Rose Tyler. I wish you sang more." Two steps and he was toe to toe with her.
He lifted her chin. "Rose," he breathed. Where had his respiratory bypass gone? It was so simple to lean down and brush his lips to hers. Then she was returning the pressure with soft lips and gentle hands slipped into his own.
Her mind was in a whirlwind, the world having tilted on its axis in the last ten seconds. She didn't want to question it because it felt so good, but blimey ....His tongue brushed her lips- an invitation to deepen the kiss- and it took all her strength to step back, push him back a pace. It took an immense amount of strength because all she wanted to do was taste him.
Confusion clouded his eyes, as well as a small amount of hurt. "I...thought..was I mistaken?" He muttered.
"You're not mistaken. I want this, Doctor. You have me for my forever, whether we do this-" she indicated between the two of them - "or not. I'm not gonna leave you. But if we do this, there's no going back for me. I can't do flirt and flight any more." Her eyes were wide and serious. She stood there with a confidence she didn't really feel. Her hands were starting to tremble, just a bit. She thought, who am I to give this all powerful Time Lord an ultimatum. She kept her eyes locked on his even though she desperately wanted to look away.
The Time Lord stood there in silence, eyes fixed on Rose. It didn't escape him that she had given him an out. And he also realized that he, for the first time in centuries, wasn't going to take it. Maybe not coward every time, after all. "I can't do it either," he whispered and her eyes flashed disappointment for a second. He realized she misunderstood immediately. "The flirt and flight thing. Excellent name for it, though, for something I don't want to do any more." He took her hands again. "I think our TARDIS is trying to tell me something, has been all day, and now I'm ready to listen. I don't do this, not in a very long time and definitely not with a traveling companion. I'm ready to let that go because I can't bear the idea of not being properly together with you. You're different, Rose Tyler, and you've seared yourself on my hearts like no one else has before." She gasped and squeezed his hands more tightly . This was not what she had expected to hear. "I was...hoping you were....ready for something more, as well."
Tears were blooming in her eyes but she gave him that tongue touched grin that made his hearts speed up. "I am," she said, smiling.
"I wish I'd done this sooner. Like when I took you to meet Dickens...or Woman Wept but Jack was with us on that one and....."
"Kiss me," she simply said.
"Absolutely," he answered and set about taking care of the situation.
The Doctor wrapped his arms around her and lowered his lips to hers. At first it was chaste, the same amount of pressure and insistence with which he begun the first kiss. This time, though, it was Rose's tongue doing the inviting and with a sigh of pleasure he opened his mouth to her. His arms wrapped around her more tightly and her hands slid into his hair. The pleasant light scratch of her nails on his scalp made him moan low in his throat and pull her body flush against his. Hands began to wander then, his skimming her sides, over her hips then sliding around to the tantalizing dip of her back and onto the curve of her bum. They kissed and tasted each other breathless until Rose had to break away to breathe. She could feel his body responding to hers and held him tighter, humming at the feel of him against her. She couldn't resist rocking her hips into his, just a bit.
Foreheads together now, the Doctor panted out, "Do we slow down now? I can't think of any reason at all to slow down, can you? Oh, Rose." He wrapped his arms around her firmly and set her on the counter. She wrapped her legs around his waist and reeled him in close to her. They returned to the matter at hand, snogging each other senseless. There really was no reason to stop.
Until Rose's mobile rang, the ringtone "A Little In Love," by Cliff Richard- Jackie's ringtone. Rose, distracted, broke the kiss and the Doctor actually snarled at her phone. "It's Mum," she said, apologetically. She didn't call often. The last time had been to warn them about Elton Pope. "I have to take this." She hopped down from the counter, and the Doctor took a step back, with a look of consternation creasing his brow. He took deep breaths to regulate his body's response to Rose's lovely kisses (and body too, don't forget that...) He had a suspicion that he would not be following up on this any time soon.
He was right.
Not long afterwards Rose and the Doctor arrived in modern day London. Her Mum hadn't come out directly and said some thing was wrong, but Rose had a feeling. It wouldn't hurt to visit, and she did need to do some laundry....
They met an army of ghosts.
A white wall and a beach and a runaway bride later, the TARDIS began to play some Beatles - something quiet and soothing, the time ship hoped. but the Doctor aimed the sonic at the speakers and music didn't play again on his TARDIS. Not until Martha Jones had a TARDIS key. She wasn't a big Beatles fan, so it worked out.