"New Delhi?" Jackie said in disbelief, her hands finding her hips. "Of all the ruddy places for that box to turn up…" Rose, who was now sitting on the sofa, had nothing to contradict the Time Lord's words.
The Doctor anxiously scratched the back of his neck for the fourth time that evening. "She did her best, Jackie," he grumbled. "Could have been worse you know. Imagine if the TARDIS had ended up on Venus."
But Jackie did not appreciate his sense of humor and tugged her pink robe tighter around herself. Tom had gone home only minutes before, after he'd answered the door to find his date's daughter and an anxious stranger on the threshold. Looking back on it, Jackie was glad Rose and the Doctor had turned up when they did. Dinner hadn't been as fun as she had planned it to be, and Jackie had found herself craving her Rose's company more and more. And now the alien in front of her was planning on taking her daughter away again.
Rose, for her part, didn't know what to feel. She had been the one to suggest to the Doctor that maybe the reappearance of the TARDIS was worth interrupting her mum's evening, but now she doubted her judgment. Half of Rose was ready to hop on a plane to India at a moment's notice. But the other half of her, the guilty half, was worried about how much pressure this now put on her mum. Dropping in unexpectedly was one thing, but this? Flights from Heathrow to India weren't exactly cheap.
Rose fidgeted on the sofa cushion and anxiously rubbed the ear of a stuffed horse sitting in her lap. The Doctor had refused to leave the fair until he'd managed to win it for her, a feat accomplished by an expert throw at a stack of bottles. Now, the brown-furred animal was something of a comfort to her.
Jackie opened her mouth to speak, but her daughter cut her off. "Look, mum, we're really sorry about this. If the Doctor could somehow summon the TARDIS he would." Rose glanced at the Doctor, who was nodding his head vigorously despite the faraway look in his eyes. "All we need is a lift."
"To New Delhi," her mum retorted. "'S not a cheap flight. And there's no way I'm letting you two cross half a continent on foot."
"We'll pay for it," Rose said, but it was a bold statement and she knew it.
"With what? Last I heard this alien here didn't have a pence to his name."
The Doctor huffed indignantly, but, much to Rose's dismay, made no move to correct Jackie's assumption. It seemed that some things never changed between regenerations. "We'll figure something out," Rose said. The Doctor shot her a warning look, but she silently shook her head. It was looking like this would be a longer stay then they'd planned, but right now they needed a plan to reach the TARDIS. And Rose didn't have much in the way of ideas.
Jackie eyed the duo for a few more uncomfortable moments, before she shook her head in exasperation and headed for the kitchen. There were still dirty dishes to take care of. After a brief hesitation, Rose set aside her stuffed horse and silently joined her mum. She knew that she was only putting off the Doctor and their inevitable discussion, but Rose needed time to gather her thoughts if she was to help him figure out a solution to their problem.
The Doctor was beginning to seriously consider leaving for India on his own by the time Rose stepped out of the kitchen. He made to jump up from his position and tell Rose his plan, but something in her movements stilled him. Maybe it was the way she slumped down next to him on the sofa, or the speed at which she retrieved the stuffed toy he had won for her. Whatever the reason, the Doctor found himself biting his tongue and letting Rose speak first. Technically speaking, he owed it to the Tyler household. It did not escape his notice that he'd be spending the night on the street if not for Jackie's hospitality.
Rose took a deep breath and decided to begin the conversation. "Do you really not have any money?"
The Doctor didn't answer at first, distracted as he was by Rose's fingers as they rubbed the horse's fuzzy ear. He had to fight the urge to accost her hand and have her fingers stroking him instead. The strictly-professional Time Lord cleared his throat and averted his gaze. "Yeah," he said finally. "Not a pound to my name. Well, I probably have a few credit bars tucked away in these pockets, but I don't think this planet's ready for the universal currency of the 34th century. Not yet, anyway."
Rose breathed out and rested her head against the back of the sofa. "So what do we do?"
"I could always sonic an ATM."
She glanced at the Doctor and watched as he casually twirled the sonic screwdriver in his fingers. Such nimble hands…Rose didn't think she could count the number of fantasies she'd had concerning those fingers. But she cleared her wandering mind with a quick shake of her head and reminded herself to focus on the task at hand. Right, the Doctor had proposed something ludicrous. "Seriously?"
"Why not?" The Doctor pointed out. "It's fast. It's easy. We wouldn't have to inconvenience Jackie by asking her for money or room in her flat while we work for it."
"But isn't that…"
"What?"
Rose bit her lip and glanced towards the kitchen. She could just see her mum's head bent over the sink. "…Stealing?"
The Doctor paused in his twirling to scratch the side of his face. "Well, yeah, it could be considered that. I prefer to call it borrowing for a higher cause. Besides." He turned his head to face Rose and affixed her with his dark brown eyes. "Didn't stop us at Satellite 5."
"That was different," she retorted, gently averting her eyes. A heated discussion was not the time to lose herself in a completely different kind of heat.
"Why? Because it was in the future and therefore hasn't happened yet?"
"We didn't use that money."
"No, that's right, your boyfriend did. And he nearly killed us."
"He wasn't my—" Rose cut herself off with a frustrated hiss. This Doctor was just as good at riling people up as his last regeneration. Adam had been a selfish git and was another bullet point in the long list of mistakes Rose had made in her life, and she didn't feel like she had the energy to argue with the Doctor about her past love affairs.
But he had made valid points. Rose would never take money from her mum when she had no way of paying her back. An ATM would be infinitely faster and easier, and, not to mention, more reliable, then waiting for the lottery or free handouts. And if Rose knew the Doctor, then she knew that he could never stand waiting around for them to raise the money through work wages when his beloved TARDIS was a mere several thousand kilometers away.
"Fine," Rose replied. "We'll do it your way." The Time Lord hummed in satisfaction and made to stand, but Rose stopped him with her next word. "Tomorrow."
The Doctor sat back down with a protest on his lips, but Jackie had overheard her daughter and beat him to it. "She's right," Rose's mum said, walking into the living room. "I'm not gonna ask what she means by 'your way', because if I know him well enough I don't think I want to know what it is. But I'm knackered, and you two aren't leaving for New Delhi without saying good-bye, so whatever it is can wait until tomorrow."
Tomorrow? Judging by the Doctor's expression, Rose didn't know if he could make it. "Mum—"
"Don't you 'mum' me. I know what my daughter looks like when she's tired." Jackie pointed at the Doctor with a stern, but sympathetic, finger. "You, too, alien. When was the last time you had a good kip?"
To Rose's surprise, instead of giving Jackie a sarcastic reply, the Doctor looked down at the brown stuffed animal and mumbled, "Too long."
Then he locked eyes with her, and Rose was utterly speechless. Something in his voice spoke of an inner vulnerability she had never heard nor seen before. Not on his current face, anyway. She blamed her own compassion for the heat pooling in her belly. But for all her crazed thoughts she could not seem to be able to look away from his deep, almost passionate, gaze.
Jackie glanced from her daughter to the man who was actually an alien, and managed to hide her triumphant smirk. The fair, the stuffed horse, the wordless conversation taking place on her sofa…how was it that everyone else could see it but them? "Well, I'm beat. 'Night, you two," she said. Then, when she saw that no reply was forthcoming, she left for her room without another word.
It took moment for Rose's mind to register her mum's words, so ensnared was she by her and the Doctor's close proximity. Ever so casually, her eyes flicked down to his lips and back up again. Was this the moment? Who would move first?
But then her mum's words clicked with the Doctor, and he spoke. "Your mum's right," he said. His words were soft but came out like a throaty growl. A sexy throaty growl.
Rose heard his words as if they had come through a funnel. The only thing she could think to say was, "Yeah…"
"Rose," the Time Lord said, his eyebrow raising until it nearly reached his hairline. "You're in my bed."
Under different circumstances, his words would have prompted Rose to indulge in one of her many fantasies involving her pouncing on him and snoging him senseless. But now his statement was like a bucket of ice cold water. Rose shook her head. "Oh, yeah. Sorry." She quickly stood up from the sofa, horse in hand, and walked out of the room. "G'night, Doctor," she called over her shoulder, hoping against hope that the Time Lord hadn't seen her blush.
The Doctor stared after Rose's retreating form and frowned, wondering if he had done something wrong. But he finally shrugged and settled down on his temporary sleeping spot. Tomorrow, he thought. Tomorrow we find the TARDIS.
In the back of his mind, the Doctor could feel a whisper of his ship's usual hum. Though it was small, he took comfort in its presence, and allowed his body to slip into sleep.
Rose, however, couldn't seem to shake her restlessness. Every position had something wrong with it, and whenever she managed to finally drift away an itch would creep along her arm or leg and she'd be wide awake all over again. Her wandering mind was no help, either. Had the Doctor been planning on kissing her? Had his words been a deflection tactic, or was he really so inept at social cues? His eyes had certainly seemed to speak a different message, but then again, she's read him wrong before. If that situation came up again, on the TARDIS, say, or anywhere else that wasn't her mum's sofa, would he take the first step? Or would he leave it up her? The latter seemed almost too cowardly an option for him, but Rose wouldn't put the thick Time Lord past it.
More than all of this, Rose wondered if that moment on the couch would change her current relationship with the Doctor. Knowing him, she'd never find out. He rarely opened up to her on such a deep and complex level. But his voice had sounded so vulnerable when he'd answered her mum…Oh, that bloody alien! He was going to be the death of her.
With a groan, Rose had to admit that her death-by-unresolved-sexual-tension might be coming sooner than expected. Tomorrow they would be buying tickets for a plane flight to New Delhi, India, a flight that was probably going to take at least seven or eight hours. A long time to be sitting next to a hard-to-read alien eager to return to his time ship. Rose desperately hoped that the Doctor would figure out what kind of relationship he wanted with her by tomorrow, for both their sakes.494Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsy44d8jyqn
