timey_wimey | [RL - Rose - Chips on a parallel universe]

Current Mood: apprehensive
Current Location: Pete's World

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[RL - Rose - Chips on a parallel universe]

[The Doctor had set a course for Pete's World - now that it was connected to the community again, it wasn't exactly rocket science. Well, it was, but that wasn't the point. It wasn't the point, either, that he was pretty much breaking every rule that he'd set down for both himself and her the last time he'd seen Rose. Either way, he was on his way there, and no one else would be any the wiser.

Well. He thought he saw Donna give him a knowing look out of the corner of her eye when he sent the rest of the family off to go and have fun somewhere while he "looked into a small something" - but the inevitable talk could wait until later.

For now, he waited next to this universe's version of the Thames - which, he noted, seemed to be slightly cleaner than the one the London of his universe had to offer - and waited.]

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Rose's heart was in her throat, beating fast and heavy with a rabbit's rapid pace. If she gave her mind permission enough to wander she could feel the beating in her fingertips and throat like a drum keeping perfect time. It would have been amusing had she not been so nervous, but Rose was too busy thinking about seeing the Doctor again to worry about that.

It hadn't been hard to decide on a place to meet - the Thames was the easiest choice - and after walking at a normal, crisp pace for several feet she couldn't contain herself anymore. A breeze caught her hair and whipped it about her face, and then Rose broke into a run. She could see the outline of his silhouette - there was no mistaking him - and euphoria was bubbling up in her throat.

She'd never thought she'd see him again, and now...

He heard her running towards him several seconds before he turned his head to see her, and unable to hold back a grin, he turned completely, standing and watching her run. He couldn't help it - he felt just as euphoric as her. He'd left her twice now on this world, both times never expecting to see her again, and both times it had been hard. Even if he had been doing the right thing.

A voice in the back of his mind was telling him that this wasn't a good idea - but today of all days, he wasn't going to listen to it. Wearing a grin that was wide enough to split his face apart, he opened his arms for a hug when she reached him.

Her feet left the ground when she let herself go, let her stride break into something faster and greater and all but jumped into his waiting arms. It was impulsive and unrestricted but she had done it before and he was smiling so brightly that it made her heart swell. It was as if no time at all had passed and it was just them again, taking on the whole of time and space.

Turning her head, Rose buried her face into the familiar curve of his neck and shoulder and held on as tight as her embrace would allow. It was almost greater than any words at that point could hope to be.

He hugged her tightly, still grinning, and rocked back slightly as she jumped into his arms. Suddenly he felt a lot younger than he'd felt in a while, what with Haruhi and then Donna and then that disastrous business with Tieria's lost over Christmas, not to mention Mikaela... it was like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, as cliched as that sounded.

"Long time no see," he managed to get out, past the grin and the giddy feeling.

"Yeah, something like that." Rose's voice was abruptly muffled against his shoulder and she didn't care, only tightened her arms and let her feet brush up and away from the ground. The hug was better that way, easier to keep her arms around him.

"I can't believe it's you. I just..I can't believe it's really you."

"Well, who else would it be?" he said, with his typical wide-eyed look of bafflement. "There aren't any other blokes wandering round in a big blue police box, are there?"

The joke was something habitual, really. It was too much of a habit for him to hide behind his jokey face; besides which, it was wonderfully easy to slip back into the old ways of always laughing and joking. He knew they'd have to be serious and honest later. But that could wait until they both had chips.

"No way of being sure anymore," she laughed, but Rose was smiling too brightly to care about the impossibility of things now. She was just too glad to be able to see him again, to be able to actually hold onto him.

It took a moment and then she drew back to look up into his eyes, the smile still there on her face. "And if there was another blue police box...well, I don't know what would have happened. But we've seen stranger things, right?"

"Famous last words," he quipped, meeting her eyes. "Although I would hope that there wasn't another one. That would rather ruin my entrance, wouldn't it?"

"So," he added, gently - finally - releasing her and reaching for her hand. "Chips?"

Chips. It felt so outrageously familiar that Rose almost expected tears to come to her eyes, and she actually blinked to keep that from becoming a possibility. Her throat tightened a little more and then she swallowed the feeling away, looking up at him with bright, warm eyes.

"Chips," she said, "that'd be perfect. Like our first date."

He squeezed her hand slightly as he smiled back down at her, reveling in the familiar feeling - even if it was a tad more bittersweet than he remembered. He really did hope that she didn't start crying. He didn't think he could take it if she did.

"Alright then. You'll have to lead the way, though. My knowledge of the chippies of London is restricted to the other one."

It did feel good to hold his hand again, to be able to link their fingers and not have his hand disappear. Rose let herself hang onto the feeling for a long moment, her thumb moving across his knuckles, and then she nodded with a laugh that let her head tilt back to look up at him better.

"That's all right, for once I'll get to show you a place or two you've never been. Bit of a role reversal, but I like it." She kept hold of his hand and let her shoulder bump his as she nodded in the direction they needed to go. There were a couple of places that were good but the one she frequented most was a little bit of a walk away. Still, it was worth it.

"Watch it, it won't last," he grinned, allowing her to do most of the leading as they walked through the streets of Pete's London. Come to think of it, speaking of Pete...

"So come on, you have to fill me in!" he said cheerfully. "How is everyone? I never really got a chance to ask last time we were all together."

"Everyone's all right. Mum and Dad are busy with the baby, Mickey's been seeing someone. I've been working. You know, the day to day, all that." Rose didn't add that she and Mickey had never tried again. There was no point. She only had room for one man in her life, an that wasn't changing anytime soon - universe gap or not.

"And I expect that Jackie's managed to gather herself another motley assortment of friends, hasn't she?" he said with a cheeky grin, before frowning suddenly. "Hang on, that was me being rude again, wasn't it."

He was deliberately steering clear of the matter of the other him, the metacrisis. Partly because he was worried that things hadn't worked out... and partly because he was scared that they had. It was another thing he knew he'd have to bring up at some point, but he couldn't quite bring himself to yet.

Rose laughed. It was probably one of the most accurate representations of her mother and her social life that she'd ever heard. "Something like that," she said, "but Mum's happy. She really is. It's funny how much happier she is now. I didn't even realize it until we were about two weeks in, and she was just..." She trailed off, shaking her head slightly. "It was like she was alive again, you know? Having Dad there, and the baby, and me, and.."

..and you, but not-you, but still...

It was hard to talk about, hard to find a way to say without sounding completely odd.

He smiled to hear about Jackie. Even though he had complained about her sometimes, she had somehow ended up becoming a part of his oddly-shaped, multi-universal family, and he was happy to hear that she and Pete and the baby - Tony, wasn't he called? - were doing well, he really was. But still...

"... and the other me," he finished for her in a neutral tone, letting the inevitable slide its way into the conversation.

"He's not you."

The retort came abruptly out from her lips, sharp and almost caustic before Rose could stop herself or even think about doing so, and she was actually surprised at her own vehemence. It wasn't directed at the Doctor, of course, not in the slightest, but the truth was that what she said had been exactly what was bothering her. There was no replacing the Doctor, he was exactly what he was.

A streak of colour moved up her throat and cheeks, and Rose dropped her eyes. "Sorry, didn't mean to snap like that."

He looked surprised at first, especially with the amount of vehemence that was present in that one statement. The thing was, the other him, the metacrisis - who he supposed needed a name other than Doctor, since really, that was his - was him, and yet it wasn't him, all at the same time. Which he supposed was part of the problem.

So eventually he just settled for a shrug and a "No, it's alright. I suppose he's not really, is he?"

The breath she didn't know she had been holding puffed from her lips and Rose let her eyes fall shut for a moment, as if somehow that would make things better, that much easier. It wouldn't, but she could try.

"I know how you wanted it to be," she said quietly. "For me. That you wanted me to have a normal life. And that's something you couldn't give me, for all of the reasons we talked about. But that doesn't mean I've ever stopped.."

..loving you.

The Doctor swallowed and blinked, now staring intently at a point approximately half a mile beyond Rose's shoulder. He knew what she meant. And he knew that she understood his reasons. Because he did want her to have a normal life, a normal life where she could be fantastic and didn't have to worry about looking after him or whether or not she was ever going to go back home.

And she deserved a man who could actually tell her that he loved her. The Doctor had too much baggage for that. Too much - and this really sounded ridiculous - too much fear.

He sighed, and closed his eyes in turn, feeling very, very old. "I know," he said softly.

Rose was finding it suddenly too hard to take in a full, deep breath. She closed her eyes against the feeling of being drawn underwater and opened them a half second later, when the fear was gone and there was a little more clarity than there had been. And when she did look, all she saw was him. Tired and drawn as he might think he was, he was still him.

"I know that all you've ever tried to do is protect me," she said quietly, "from anything, from...Slitheen and Daleks and the end of the world and everything else in between. And I know why you made things the way they are. But you also need to know, in case you don't, that the only thing that I've ever really wanted, more than my own safety or to know what's coming next, is you. And I don't care if you think that's daft, it's the truth."

He shook his head slightly, but it wasn't a denial or a refusal more than sheer disbelief and a way to try and clear his thoughts. It was daft. In fact it wasn't just daft, it was insane.

But he had to admit, he wouldn't have it any other way. "Well," he sighed ruefully, "I know better now than to argue with you." He smiled wryly, but there was a genuine warmth and gratitude in his eyes as he looked at her.

The curve of her face was flushed with a pinkish tint, something warm and alive and vibrant, but admittedly Rose wondered if she had cause to be embarrassed about her outburst. Now, though, looking back and into his eyes she knew there was nothing to be worried about. Not now, when they were here and together.

"Yeah," she said, "because even if you did argue with me that doesn't mean I'd let you win." Her eyes were glinting with amusement, but she took a couple of steps closer and touched her fingers to the back of his arm.

"When have you ever let me win," he mock-grumbled, amusement twinkling in his own eyes. Oh yes, this was how he remembered things. Well, more or less. Well... oh, sod it. He cleared his throat slightly and nodded down the street.

"Come on then. Chips await, and I'm starving," he announced jovially, spinning the conversation once again out of uncomfortable waters. But nevertheless, almost on impulse he leaned across to slide an arm around her waist as they walked.

When he pulled her in a little closer, something in Rose's chest swelled and she felt a smile creep its way up the curve of her mouth, settling into a place where chances were it wouldn't be dislodged any time soon. She turned her head and pressed her face against his neck, taking in the warm, familiar smell of him and just letting herself feel how good it was to know he was real with her again.

"Right, I bet you are," she teased back. "Been giving you a bit of a hard time, haven't I."

"You, give me a hard time?" he said, eyes wide in apparent denial. Then he grinned. "Perish the thought!"

There was something quite wonderful about the current situation, he thought. It wasn't the feeling of capturing the past - although nostalgia did factor heavily into it all - but something else. Something for the future as well.

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[RL - Rose - Chips on a parallel universe]

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God, I am so sorry for the late tag >.<

No problem!!

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