Work Text:
“D’you know where the Doctor went?” Rose was half awake, her head in Yaz's lap.
“No,” Yaz said. “She went out about… half an hour ago? No clue why. Seemed important. I think you were asleep.”
Rose hummed.
“What's the last thing you remember?” Yaz asked.
“Doctor was here,” Rose said. “I was lying like this. Think she was talking about— car repair.” She'd been going in and out of consciousness for most of the day, recovering from a nasty time storm they'd hit the day before. But time was a bit wibbly for her in the aftermath of events like these— the Doctor swore up and down that “wibbly” was, in fact, the technical term— and it was possible that she was in a moment before the Doctor entered, or that she'd be in the moment the Doctor left soon, or just that she'd fallen asleep, like a normal human might. But she was comfortable, and warm, and everything seemed calm, with Yaz’s fingers threading gently through her hair, and so she didn’t care too much about the order of events. The temporal confusion— which the Doctor said was the “slightly more technical” term— could be dangerous, if they were outside the TARDIS, but here it was mostly just a nuisance.
“You’re more or less linear, then,” Yaz said. “You fell asleep partway through the car thing, and then she got all worried about you. Kind of cute, honestly. And then she ran off somewhere. Didn’t really explain why.”
“Right.” Rose closed her eyes again. “You’d think she’d be used to it, after all this time.”
“Used to it?” Yaz asked.
Rose waved a hand. “You know. Me. Being like this. It’s not like I’m going to die.”
“You know that won’t stop her worrying,” Yaz laughed.
“Yeah.” Rose smiled. “I’m well aware.” She sat up, evaluating her bodily sensation: her head still hurt, but not as much as it had earlier. And she had a concept of “earlier,” which was a good sign. Her muscles were sore, and she was a little dizzy, but all told, she was doing all right.
Yaz reached over to the nightstand. “Water?” she asked, offering a glass to Rose.
“Thanks.” Rose took a sip. “You come prepared.”
“Tried to get paracetamol too, but the Doctor said it wouldn’t help.”
“Doesn’t usually,” Rose agreed. “It’s part of the whole ‘not quite human’ deal, we think.” She let her head fall on Yaz’s shoulder. “Helps to be in the TARDIS. And to not be alone.”
Yaz wrapped an arm around her waist, but before she could say anything, the door banged open, and the Doctor came in, holding a mess of copper wire in one hand and a bucket in the other. There was the distinct smell of fried food coming from the bucket. Rose frowned.
“Doctor? What—”
“Isn’t it obvious?” the Doctor asked, holding up the wire. “It’s Hanukkah!”
Rose stared. Now she was looking properly, she could see the wire had been twisted into the shape of a menorah, with holders for each candle: it was verging on elegant, actually, even though Rose was pretty sure she recognized the wire from the hangers in the TARDIS’s closets.
“How do you figure?” she asked.
The Doctor shrugged. “Been a while since we celebrated the last one. And you were having a bad day, and you like Hanukkah, so why not?” She frowned. “Could go land on Earth in December if you’re going for realism.”
“That’s all right,” Rose said, grinning. “If you say it’s Hanukkah, I believe you.” She glanced around her room. “Where are you going to put the menorah?”
The Doctor looked around, silent for a whole three seconds before saying, “Well, that mirror is almost a window.” She nodded to Rose’s vanity, which was covered in equal parts makeup and bits of technology she’d been fiddling with. “Y’know, if you take into account a number of different myths and superstitions.”
“Yeah, I’ll take it,” Rose decided. “Considering we’re already being a bit creative about the date.”
“Brilliant.” The Doctor carefully moved some of Rose’s makeup to the side so she could set down the menorah. She put the bucket on the floor next to it and pulled out a roll of tinfoil and a pack of— Rose squinted. Were those birthday candles? The Doctor laid out a sheet of tinfoil underneath the menorah and started inserting the candles into the holders.
“Hanukkah’s eight days, isn’t it?” Yaz asked. “Which night is tonight?”
“Well,” the Doctor said, “we’ve got a time machine. There’s no reason we have to do the nights in order. Rose, any preference?”
“Not really,” Rose said. “How many candles d’you want to light?”
“Oh, if we’re going based on how many candles we want to light, it’s got to be day eight,” the Doctor said, very seriously.
“All right,” Rose said. “Day eight. Why not?”
The Doctor grinned. “Brilliant.” She glanced at Yaz. “Yaz, you on board?”
“‘Course,” Yaz said. “I’ve had friends invite me round for Hanukkah before.”
“But you haven’t had Hanukkah with the Doctor,” Rose teased.
“Oi, Hanukkah with me is delightful ,” the Doctor said, pulling her sonic screwdriver out of her pocket.“Right. Rose, d’you remember the words to the blessings? ‘Cause if I’m being honest, I’m coming up blank.”
Rose laughed. “‘Course I remember,” she said. It had been years since she’d celebrated with her family, but she’d gotten deep enough into the routine of it— and celebrated often enough with the Doctor in the time since— that the Hebrew words were engraved in her mind. She started singing, and the Doctor joined in after all, only mixing up the words a little bit. The room was silent, full of potential, as the Doctor lifted her sonic and lit the shamash— and then a yelp from Yaz as the shamash started sending sparks in every direction.
“All right, I don’t remember this from when my friends had me round,” she said.
Rose started laughing. “Doctor, you know you’re supposed to use one of the normal candles for the shamash.”
The Doctor gave her a look so wounded that she could only laugh harder. “I thought it was a normal one! Could’ve sworn I grabbed the regular box.”
Rose shook her head. “You’ve got to use that to light all the others now, you know.”
Very carefully, the Doctor reached out to take the shamash between two fingers, holding it away from her body as she touched it to the first candle. As predicted, the candle started sparking, but the Doctor moved on, somehow managing to light each candle without burning herself. She set the shamash back in its holder and moved back to the bed, sprawling herself out next to Rose.
“You know we have to let those burn for half an hour now,” Rose said, grinning. “At least .”
“You’re not worried about all your stuff catching fire?” Yaz checked.
“TARDIS has a sprinkler system,” the Doctor said. “Sorry, Rose. I really did think they were the normal ones.”
Rose laughed. “No, this is way better. I never want to do Hanukkah with normal candles again.”
The Doctor sat up. “Really? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure next time I can find candles that’ll give all the flames different shapes.”
“Holding you to that,” Rose said. “In fact, I think we ought to start observing Shabbat. Once a week. Lots of chances for you to show off your candles.”
The Doctor pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Brilliant idea, Rose Tyler. I’ll have to start up a collection.”
Rose laughed. “Now what else is in that bucket of yours?”
“Oh!” The Doctor jumped up again. She picked up the bucket and pulled out a a lump of tinfoil, a jar of applesauce, a dreidel, a little bag of gelt, a bottle of fancy sparkling lemonade, a wooden tray, and a bundle of fabric that turned out to be three very ugly Hanukkah jumpers. “You don’t have to wear the jumpers,” she rushed to say. “It’s just that the TARDIS put them in the cabinet with the gelt and the dreidel, and I figured they looked like fun.”
“Oh, I’m wearing the jumper,” Rose said, grabbing one and holding it up to reveal an alternating dreidel and star of David pattern behind a menorah with actual detachable velcro flames. She pulled it over her head. When she poked her head back out, the Doctor was wearing her own jumper, which was a violent rainbow and read, Come on baby, light my menorah. Rose burst into laughter. “Doctor, did you look at these before you brought them in here?”
The Doctor looked down. “What’s wrong with it?”
Rose shook her head. “Nothing.”
“I think it suits you,” Yaz said. She’d gotten away with a garish yellow cardigan, emblazoned with the words Happy Hanukkah and a pattern of menorahs, zigzags, and dreidels.
“Thank you, Yaz.” The Doctor beamed. “See, Rose, Yaz understands.”
“I’m known for it,” Yaz agreed.
“And now we can start the party.” The Doctor pulled a layer of tinfoil away from the lump to reveal a healthy pile of latkes. “Made them myself! Didn’t even burn anything.”
The candles sparked away as the Doctor, Yaz, and Rose continued their little celebration. The Doctor beat everybody at dreidel, and then Yaz insisted she had to stop trying to win and rely on luck like everyone else— at which point Yaz quickly amassed a large pile of gelt.
Finally, the candles were little more than a pile of wax on the tinfoil underneath the menorah, and Rose was nodding off against Yaz’s shoulder. The Doctor kissed them each on the head before getting up to clear everything off the bed. Everything went back into the bucket, and the Doctor set the bucket next to the door, saying, “Remind me to bring that back to the kitchen tomorrow, yeah?”
As the Doctor came back over to the bed, Rose reached out an arm, pulling the Doctor close against her side.
“Thanks for the surprise Hanukkah.”
The Doctor brushed a hand through her hair. “Anytime. Just ask.”
Yaz leaned forward to look at her. “That’s not a surprise, is it?”
“Suppose not.” The Doctor shrugged. “Don’t ask, then. I’ll work it out.”
“Anyway,” Rose added, “we’ve got seven more non-surprise nights to do.”
Yaz laughed. “Even if the Doctor doesn’t get to light all eight candles?”
“Oh, but I forgot about the sparkler candles,” the Doctor said. “Every night’s way better with those.”
“Maybe we could visit Earth,” Rose said. “Celebrate on the right days.”
“All right, then,” the Doctor said. “Second you feel up to it, we go celebrate as many nights of Hanukkah as you want. Could even go back and see the original.”
“Yeah, I’m holding you to that,” Rose replied. She leaned back to lie down, somehow managing to bring both Yaz and the Doctor with her. “Not tonight, though.”
“No,” the Doctor agreed, curling around Rose. “Not tonight.”