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When they made it safely back to the TARDIS, having narrowly escaped a band of angry townsfolk armed with pointy objects, he enveloped her in a crushing hug. He just let himself enjoy the closeness for a moment, relishing the feel of her in his arms, the tantalizing scent of her hair. He loved feeling the pound of her heart against him, hearing the steady beat, slowing to a natural rhythm, the mew–
Hang on. Mew?
“Rose, did you just make a kittenish meow?” He stepped back to arms length and looked at her quizzically, wondering if she’d taken ill somehow.
“No,” she answered without missing a beat. “That’d be the kittenish kitten.” She reached into an inside pocket of her denim jacket and withdrew a tiny white ball of fluff with large bright blue eyes.
He immediately took another step back. “What is that?” he said pointing at the small offensive creature.
“Kitten,” Rose repeated, proffering up the animal in her cupped palms.
“What’s it doing here? Where’d you get it? You can’t keep it!” he said, trying to hide the rising panic he knew was creeping into his voice. A cat! On the TARDIS, what was she thinking. It could get into the wiring and wreak unknown havoc. It could piddle on the console and cause a power failure. It could sleep on his face. It could sleep on her face and smother her. And she wasn’t evolutionarily gifted like he was by respiratory bypass.
“You want me to toss it outside?”
“Yes!”
“So… out there,” she balanced the kitten on one hand and pointed a thumb behind her out the door, “with the angry townspeople?”
He turned wide eyes on her; looked from her, to the cat, to the door, to the cat, and then back to her again. He could clearly hear the mob outside, still calling for their heads. He weighed the options. Could they ease open the door just a tiny bit, enough to push the eensy home wrecker outside, and close it in time to save their skins?
Rose was pouting slightly. He’d have to be strong in the face of her very convincing lips. They got him into so much trouble. He drew on his internal reserves, the part buried deep within him that might still be able to resist Rose’s patented pout-and-puppy-eyes combo.
“But…”
“We’re keeping her,” Rose stated, bouncing past him and swooping into the jumpseat. She settled the kitten on her lap and began to stroke it tenderly. “I think I’ll call her Pocket.”
He approached the pair gingerly. He’d have to pilot them out of here if throwing out the cat wasn’t an option. He turned his back to her and began setting coordinates for the nearest planet that could support feline life, if only briefly.
“Rose,” he said trying to imbue his voice with stern authority and warning. “We are not keeping that thing aboard this TARDIS.”
“But Doctor, look!”
He made the mistake of turning around and suddenly found himself with an armful of warm, fluffy, tiny kitten, Rose having thrust it at him and his hands having come up automatically to keep it from falling to the grate below.
“She likes you!” Rose beamed.
He looked down at the ball of fur. It was purring contentedly already. It didn’t seem like it had plans of imminent destruction, but he knew better than most how deceiving looks could be. This wasn’t even an Earth cat; who knew what it’d turn into once they inevitably fed it some warm milk? His hard earned, have-to-stop-off-on-earth-and see-Jackie-to-restock milk. Because Rose would never let him drop off the small bundle at their next stop, would she?
Without looking up, he could feel Rose watching him expectantly. His second fatal mistake of the afternoon was lifting his head to meet her gaze. One more look into her wide brown eyes and he knew that this battle, short as it had been, was completely and utterly lost.
He sighed loudly and leaned back against the console, scratching the cute little monster behind the ears.
FIN
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