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"Hmmm, what, Mum?" Rose was fairly sure her mother said something to her, but Rose was peering at her laptop screen. She had to bring bloody paperwork home over the weekend. The bureaucracy was worse than the damn alien invasions.
Rose and Jackie were spending a Saturday morning together in Jackie's sunny kitchen. They planned to shop after Jackie fixed lunch for Tony and Rose finished the paperwork. Jackie drained the spaghetti and repeated what she said to Rose. "I was just askin'...you know your anniversary is comin' up. Are the pair of you plannin' on doin' anything special?"
Rose looked at her mother, gobsmacked for a second. Anniversary? She asked as much, and Jackie looked at her like she had subtracted some IQ points while doing the paperwork. "Anniversary of you both comin' here. Of....getting back together."
Oh. Bad Wolf Bay. That one. They had about three anniversaries, Rose realized. March was when he took her hand and said run. Christmas commemorated the day when he burst forth a gobby, frenetic thin man with really great hair. She glanced at the calendar on the refrigerator. Seven days until July 8.
"We haven't made any plans, Mum." Truth was, Rose wasn't sure how she felt about that anniversary. It certainly had turned out well. They had three weeks of a rocky start, but things had (mostly) been smooth sailing. He missed the stars and time travel terribly. They were growing a TARDIS and was slow going. It was still faster than normal, thanks to the brilliant Donna Noble but still, slow.
The Doctor and and Rose had nearly called it quits close to their first Christmas when she was hurt at work, and upon her return from medical leave, he tricked her into abandoning a dangerous situation. How was that any different from any other time he'd sent her away, she had screamed at him. She moved back into the mansion, he stayed in their guest cottage. It worked out by Christmas Eve but it had been one of the roughest patches she'd had since the Doctor in brown pinstripes had left them to fend for themselves on bloody Bad Wolf Bay.
But, even for the hard times, and frustrations, there was no where else in the universe she'd rather be. He told her he loved her freely and openly and never hid it. He made love to her tenderly, enthusiastically and reveled in the intimacy. But best of all, he was so much more open. She had learned more about him in this past year than in the time from the word "run" to the horror of Canary Wharf.
She smiled warmly at her mum. "We might do something."
"Rose, if there's one thing I've learned from loving this world's Pete, it's never pass up the chance to celebrate something. It's your second chance." She put some carrots on Tony's plate, thinking. "We could celebrate his birthday, too. It's that day, right?"
"Yeah." Rose's eyes widened. "My boyfriend is a one year old. That's not half bizarre."
Jackie snorted. "When you got together he was 903 and you were 19. Bizarre doesn't even begin to cover your situation."
"Says the woman married to the parallel version of her first husband and had two shotgun weddings to basically the same man." They both burst out laughing. It was an old joke between them.
Tony chose that moment to buzz in with his Buzz Lightyear. He looked puzzled. Grown ups were always so weird.
******
The Doctor swore loudly, an impressive mix of English and Gallifreyan. Sitting back with a plop on the shed floor, he removed his brainy specs and rubbed his eyes. "It's fine, it's fine. It'll be fine, once I get this calibrated. Just have to....." He hurriedly tapped on his laptop keyboard.
A pause.
"Error code 39279037," the screen displayed. The Doctor wanted to throw something.
"No, no, no, no!" he yelled. This was crucial. This was the TARDIS' life support. He steadied his breathing and sent a telepathic wave of reassurance and love to his baby time ship. "You're okay," he said aloud. He turned to the keyboard again, typed in a series of equations and code and waited. The shatterfry unit sputtered and paused and then the indicator lights shown a uniform green again. The Doctor held his breath until he remembered he didn't have a respiratory bypass anymore. The error code did not repeat.
"Okay, okay then," he said on a breath. "C'mon, sweetie. It's okay, just...hang in there, okay...." He touched the coral lovingly and the vitals looked stronger almost immediately.
The door opened behind him and Rose stepped in on the strange sight of the Doctor sitting in the dark, on the floor, surrounded by the shatterfry unit, pieces of machinery and diagnostic equipment she knew was nicked from Torchwood. His hand was on the coral, and he was stroking with his thumb.
"Sarah Jane once asked me if you still stroked bits of....." she began lightly but the dread in his eyes shocked her silent. "Love?" she asked.
"We're fine, it's okay," he said.
It sounded like he was telling her he was always all right.
"That's bollocks," she said gently. "What happened?"
He took a deep breath and she noticed that his hand was trembling.
"The biostasis nutritive component of the shatterfry unit keeps going offline, along with the air purifier. In short, she's having trouble breathing and eating. We've got a sick girl here."
"Oh," she gasped. She reached out and caressed his arm. He calmed a bit with her touch.
"Physical contact helps stabilize her vital signs. We have a strong bond, that's in our favor. This helps."
She tentatively held her hand out and placed it under the Doctor's. "I'm bonded to her too. She just needs some hands to hold." Her hand molded to the TARDIS coral and she sent a wave of love towards both the time ship and her Doctor. He needed as much as the TARDIS did.
He nodded, with a small smile. "Once we get her past this crisis, then I can work more on the systems themselves."
"Then that's what we do," Rose said. She decided that now was not the time to bring up anniversary plans.
******
And it's what they did. They maintained as much physical contact as they could over the next twenty-four hours until the shatterfry unit built up a charge. Late Sunday night Rose fell exhausted into their own bed. The Doctor had a portable monitor set up to scan for any problems, but he still could not leave the TARDIS alone.
Rose called in Monday morning and requested to work from home. Nothing she was working on at the moment was security sensitive so she decided to take the time to be with the Doctor and their TARDIS. Pete understood. He knew and accepted that eventually Rose and the Doctor would spend more time traveling space and time than staying with the family on earth.
Jackie was harder to convince, and said as much in front of Rose and Pete. Rose was furious. "Mum, 's not some weekend do it yourself project he does for a hobby! He needs it. We need it."
Jackie huffed, frustrated but said no more. Pete granted her the time to help. Rose was grateful the Doctor hadn't heard Jackie's comment.
For the next few days the Doctor was on high alert, and he spent more than one night on a cot next to the TARDIS, hoping to get her through the crisis. By Thursday night he was cautiously optimistic and Rose was pleasantly surprised when he came out of their ensuite dressed in his pajamas. "Sleeping here tonight?" She asked.
"I hope.... I think our crisis is averted. She's not grown but she is stable. I need some real rest. I have the monitor." He set his phone on the table next to them, the monitoring app open. He collapsed into bed next to her. She pulled him close and he wrapped himself around her and sighed in relief. He looked so exhausted. His eyes were already closed.
Rose held the Doctor as he fell into a doze. She felt tears sting the back of her eyes. What if, she thought. what if it doesn't work? What if the TARDIS just dies? What would he do, permanently stuck on the slow path?
She honestly didn't know what would become of him. She reckoned he tolerated the slow path, knowing that eventually they'd have the stars. All of time and space. What if that was stolen from him? She wanted to travel with him. She loved that little tickle in the back of her mind, of their TARDIS connecting with her.
What would become of them? She felt the tears beginning to flow and she tried hard to control her sobs. All the worry she'd been trying to repress poured out over her, but she didn't want him to feel her crying. Rose was exhausted too, and cried herself to sleep.
****
The Doctor woke in the early hours of the morning. The dark before the dawn, he thought, looking at the skylight above their bed. He gave the monitor a look, saw that things were stable at the moment, then he spooned up to Rose.
What would become of them if the TARDIS couldn't grow? ( He couldn't bring himself to think "die" because then he'd be truly cut off from anything Gallifreyan.) No time, no stars. No "next stop- anywhere." Would she want to continue on the slow path with him? He hoped, he fervently hoped she would. He wanted the stars, he wanted time and space and all that went with it. And he wanted his life in a house with her, with kids maybe someday. He didn't think he'd ever really let her know how much he wanted all that. He wanted the TARDIS for that connection with his Time Lord life. It filled his mind with a wonderful presence that had been silenced with the fall of Gallifrey.
He wanted Rose for the rest of his life. His one human life, with his one human heart. Growing old together. He wanted to travel the stars, it was true. He wanted it with her.
The Doctor knew that their one year anniversary was arriving. He'd overheard Jackie asking (nagging) Rose about plans for it. He wanted to get this crisis over with so he could celebrate with her the way he had planned. Hopefully then, she'd know exactly where they stood.
******
On Friday morning Rose let the Doctor sleep and she wandered over to the mansion in hopes of some breakfast. She hadn't really spoken to her mother since they'd had words, and she felt a little remorseful for that.
Jackie was in the kitchen trying out her new waffle maker, so Rose decided she'd hit the jackpot. "Mornin', Mum," she said with a smile.
"Mornin'," Jackie answered. "And where's himself?"
"Sleeping. He decided things were stable enough with the TARDIS to get some real rest, thank God. He can't think or solve any problems exhausted."
"True," Jackie agreed. "Lookin' for some breakfast?"
"Was hopin'," Rose said with a big grin.
"You make the coffee then, and I'll get it going." She poured some batter into the waffle maker. "So. Just wonderin' if the pair of you talked about anniversary plans?"
Rose sighed. "It just hasn't been a priority, Mum."
"Well, Pete and I want you over here. I know the Doctor won't want us to make a fuss. Just a cake maybe and we'll cook out. Sound good?"
"Sure. Sounds fine. He'd like fairy cakes... With banana frosting and edible ball bearings," Rose grinned. "We had them after the opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics."
Jackie gave Rose a skeptical look, to which Rose succinctly replied, "Time travelers." Jackie rolled her eyes.
"So...how are things with the TARDIS. Do you think he can fix it?"
"She's alive, Mum. The problem isn't with the coral, it's the machine he's rigged to help her grow and keep her alive. Remember Donna? She told him how. But...there's issues and the TARDIS is sick."
Jackie let this sink in. "I don't think of it as alive, you know. It's a spaceship to me. A dangerous spaceship."
"I know...but she is at the very least semi-sentient. This one and the one I travelled in before. She..reads your mind, I guess."
Jackie looked aghast. "It's in your head? What, it can read what you're thinkin'?"
"It's not as bad as its sounds, Mum. Really. And think of it. It's the only piece of his home world available able to him, the only thing Gallifreyan that exists in this universe, other than him. If you could communicate with our old universe, wouldn't you try?"
Jackie took a waffle out of the waffle maker and gave it to Rose, considering what she said. "I suppose. I'd talk to your nan, if I could. But I'm terrified of the thought of you two travellin' again. We just got you back, for good, and you've been plannin to go gallivantin' off all along. It hurts a bit, to be right honest with you." Rose hugged her right.
"You've known it all along, Mum."
Jackie sighed, and shrugged. "Suppose so. Can you...feel that TARDIS in your head, then?"
"Not as strongly as he can, but yes. It's wonderful. And you don't have to love it....just understand how much it means to him. And me."
"What if it doesn't work, Rose? What if he can't fix whatever's wrong?"
Rose's throat closed. It was too close what she had been thinking as she fell asleep. "We'll cross that bridge when...if.... we come to it," Rose said, and her voice held a tone of finality that told Jackie the subject was closed for now. "He'll do it, I believe in him," Rose muttered, more for herself than for her mum. Jackie put some waffles on her plate and they sat down to breakfast together.
*******
The Doctor was skittish, which Rose put down to worries about the TARDIS. Still, she had to ask him what he wanted to do about their anniversary, before Mum burst in and told them what they were doing.
He was on the floor of the shed again, running numbers and writing code. He told Rose before she left in search of breakfast that he thought he had it. If he wrote this code correctly, then all the issues with the TARDIS would be worked out. It might take some time to show growth, but they'd be okay. He was a fast typist. He thought that maybe, Donna's temp skills were transferred to him in the metacrisis and he was going to use them.
"Hello," she called.
The Doctor glanced up, sweaty fringe hanging limp across his forehead and his glasses sliding down his nose. He absently pushed the specs back up. "Hi," he said, then he glanced back down at the screen.
"Got a minute?" she asked hesitantly.
Well, no, he didn't but he didn't want to tell her that. "Sure."
"Mum's been asking if we'd like to celebrate our anniversary with them. It'd be a combination anniversary/ birthday party for you. She just wants to cook out and you'd get cake, of course." She wanted to giggle when he perked up at the word "cake."
"I could be persuaded. But I might have plans for you myself," he said with a bit of a smirk. Now she just wanted the snog the smirk right off of him. Another time.
"How goes it?" Rose asked, sitting down next to him.
"Better. I hope. We shall see." He cupped her cheek. "One year. It doesn't seem like any time at all has
gone by. And I would know, with my time sense. I think that'll be how it always is with you now with this one life."
"Can you still feel the turn of the Earth? I still remember you telling me that all those years ago. I think that's when I fell in love with you. So much time has passed and I still feel the same way about you as I did then." She leaned in and they kissed, slowly and deeply and full of promise. When the Doctor finally pulled back to look at her, he had a speculative look in his eyes. "What, love?" Rose asked.
"Just thinking, no time like the present. Thinking about time a lot today...such is life with a Time Lord..."
"You're rambling."
"Of course I am. And there's a reason, which will be some clear hopefully soon...and, well, Rose Tyler, I....."
And they were yanked out of the moment harshly (much like that other time he didn't get to finish his sentence) when alarms started going off on the monitor. The Doctor took a couple of seconds to process what he was seeing and then his hands were on the keyboard again. His eyes were wild and terrified.
"Doctor..." Rose began.
"We're losing her. It's like a code blue on one of those medical shows your mum watches." His fingers were flying, and he felt as though the part of him that was Donna, or maybe Donna herself was guiding his fingers. "Put your hands on her again..." he ordered. She laid her hands on the coral without question.
Rose breathed deeply and concentrated and she could feel a buzz deep in her mind. It was weak, waning, but it was there. She concentrated and sent out her love for both the TARDIS and her Time Lord.
The Doctor gasped and flicked his eyes to her but refocused quickly and they set about saving their TARDIS together.
It happened two more times and both times they saved her. On the third time, the coding was slightly different and finally, the Doctor could see an improvement in the TARDIS' vitals that wasn't there before. He took a properly deep breath for the first time in hours. He reached out for Rose's hand and they sat there together, each with one hand on the coral and the other hands joined.
"I think...I hope the crisis is over," the Doctor sighed. "You are brilliant, Rose Tyler. Absolutely brilliant. I could not have done it without you. I felt everything- every thought, every emotion, I felt it all. You are amazing. And exhausted." She was falling asleep sitting up. "Go on to bed, love."
"You need my help," she protested sleepily.
"You can't help me if you're asleep. Up you go, Dame Rose," he said, standing up and helping her to a standing position. They were both stiff from sitting so long. She stretched. They both eyed the monitor anxiously but the indicators stayed steady.
"You come too, when you can," Rose said with a kiss.
"I will. I promise. Get some rest." With another glance at the monitor, (and another wave of love at their TARDIS) Rose left the shed and went sleepily back to their house.
The Doctor sat back down by the monitor. He thought he might actually have solved the issues, but he decided to keep vigil a while longer. After doing more diagnostic checks until he was finally confident that things were stable.
He thought of Rose, as always. Her own telepathic abilities, while never the level of a Time Lord's, had increased surprisingly fast. She always had a latent talent that they hadn't really attempted to develop until after Krop Tor, and even then she mostly used it to communicate with the other TARDIS. It made sense, then, that her bond should be so strong since that coral had come from that TARDIS. She had retained some of the connection she had with Rose. He really could not have saved this TARDIS without her. Better with two, she always said. He loved her. How he loved her.
At that moment, he needed to tell her (and ask her) what he had planned to say before the latest crisis began. She'd only been asleep for a little over an hour, but he could not wait. He snatched up his phone and opened the monitor application and jogged back to the house.
The Doctor could see the desk light in the sitting room was still on, and upon entering the house he saw that Rose hadn't made it past the sofa facing the stone fireplace. He slipped his hand into his transdimensional trouser pocket and fished around until he found the small box he had been keeping there.
Rose was lying on her side on the sofa. He knelt down by her and touched her arm lightly. Rose stirred sleepily, but didn't open her eyes.
"Rose," he said. She mumbled something unintelligible. He said her name again and this time her eyes flew open.
"The TARDIS? Is there....."
"No, love, nothing's wrong. Not at all." He cupped her cheek and kissed the top of her head.
"Oh...good. I didn't want to get into bed without you, Doctor. Ready now?" She rubbed her eyes.
"Happy anniversary, Rose Tyler. It's half midnight." He grasped her hand and kissed it.
She grinned at him and sat up. "Happy anniversary, my Doctor."
He locked eyes with her and the intensity there took her breath away. Time seemed to stop, waiting for his next words. "How long are you going to stay with me?" he asked the old familiar question.
She gave the only answer she could, the one that had been in her heart even before the first time he'd asked her. "Forever."
"Then...." Remaining on his knees, he reached into his pocket and took out a small gray box. He opened it to reveal a ring, adorned with a sapphire and two small diamonds. Her eyes widened in surprise. "Will you marry me, Rose Tyler?"
Her head was nodding, and tears were blooming in her eyes, even before the words escaped her lips. "Yes, oh, yes, of course I will." She grabbed his hand and tugged, urging him onto the sofa with her. With shaking hands, he slipped the ring onto her hand. He kissed her hand again and she reached for him, pulling him into a tight embrace.
She was murmuring "I love you" over and over in his ear, then she pulled back and their lips met in a slow, sweet kiss. When she opened her out to his they settled into the snog. He leaned her back against the sofa cushions. His hands had begun to wander under her vest top, caressing the bare skin of her back. Her hands slipped into his hair, making him hum happily. They broke apart to breathe, and the Doctor wanted to say something profound, something to tell this woman, his second heart, the depths of his feelings.
Instead he yawned. Hugely. Rose could not help but laugh, the tears from before still drying on her cheeks. The Doctor sighed in frustration, putting his face against her neck. In a moment he was chuckling too. "My fiancé is sleepy," she snickered.
"I like that. The fiancé part, that is." His voice was muffled against her neck.
"What do you say we sleep and revisit this in a few hours when we're both all charged up?" Rose suggested. He nodded against her neck.
"You'd think I'd be used to the sleep demands of this body by now," the Doctor said, sitting up slowly.
"You'd think," she replied, amusing herself by remembering the times she caught him sleeping on the sofa with a book open on his chest. They went up to their loft. Rose lay back against her pillow and held up her hand, admiring her new ring.
The Doctor chuckled when he saw her holding it up to the bedside lamp to admire the play of light on the sapphire's facets. "Distracted by shiny objects now, I take it?" He slipped under the sheet."
"Only this one," she said with a grin. "It's gorgeous. TARDIS blue, I see."
"Time was I could give you a Drogonian lapis lazuli that glowed rainbow lights in the dark," he mused.
"Horribly distracting. I love my Earth sapphire. "
"The ones in Pete's World actually are better quality than the ones in your original universe, more shine and clarity. I liked it quite a lot, even if it's not Drogonian."
"I love it. I love you," rolled to her side to face him.
"I love you, Rose Tyler. Always will. No matter where we are. Here on the slow path, or space and time. I don't know if I've ever really let you know that here in Pete's World. I hope, I fervently hope that we can travel the stars again. But if something happened, if we couldn't...we'd be all right, you and me. Remember, stuck with you..."
"Not so bad," she finished, tears blooming again. He cupped her cheek gently and kissed her forehead softly.
"I'm so sorry if you ever doubted it. I want it all with you, Rose Tyler. Everything our life here on the slow path has to offer. Everything and if we are lucky, the stars too."
"I believe we'll be lucky. " she said, smiling warmly.
"I believe in you," he returned. He turned off the light, pulled her close, their bodies snuggled tightly together. They caressed each other's skin gently and kissed slowly. It was meant to soothe rather than arouse, and they dozed off warm and safe in each other's arms.
When the sunlight streamed in through their skylight a few hours later, The Doctor rolled over and examined the monitor. He was satisfied that all the TARDIS' vitals were steady.
This time, as he woke Rose up with kisses and lovely gentle touches, the intent behind the caresses was decidedly different.
That evening, Jackie and Pete discovered that they had more to celebrate than just an anniversary or a birthday. Rose discovered that her mum had a secret Pinterest wedding board that she now could share with her daughter. The Doctor discovered that this universe had edible ball bearings too.
Three days later, the Doctor shot out of the shed like a rocket, meeting Rose as she exited the house. He embraced her and swung her back and forth like he had after they reunited after Krop Tor. "Three millimeters, Rose Tyler! Three. She's growin'!"
"Oh!" She gasped and they kissed in joyous celebration.
They broke apart to breathe, foreheads together. His gaze was intense, his smile radiant. Rose had meant to breathe, but he took her breath away. "We are going to do this, love. Everything, and the stars."
His hand slipped into hers and they went to check on their TARDIS together.