The Direct (and Not so Direct) Approach (1/4)

[amberfocus]

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Title: The Direct (and Not so Direct) Approach (1/4)
Author: amberfocus
Characters/Pairings: Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler
Genre: Romance, Fluff
Rating: Teen for now
Betas: amyo67,jeprdyfrndly
Summary: Rose Tyler turns down the Ninth Doctor's invitation to travel with him twice. With a little gentle persuasion, and becoming an active presence in her Earthbound life, can he change her mind?
A/N: Written for the then_theres_us ficathon. It got...really big. As is the prompt so the prompt is under the cut. AU from the end of the episode Rose. I'm sorry if the formatting goes all wonky or the cut fails (I'll fix as fast as I can). This is my first attempt at doing an entire chapter in html, because rich text editor hates me. *crosses fingers, holds breath, clicks on post*



Prompt by phoenikxs: This prompt comes from the following paragraph in lillibetm3's fic Strange Magicks.

"Yet if she'd said no that second time... he couldn't swear that he wouldn't have asked a third time. If she'd said no again, then maybe he'd have taken to hanging around the Powell Estate while doing repairs on the TARDIS. After all there were always repairs that needed doing, and the Powell Estate was as good as anywhere to do them. Maybe he'd have bumped into her in the chip shop, accidently on purpose. Once or twice."

phoeniksx wanted someone to expand on Rose saying no and the Doctor figuring out how to change her mind.

Chapter One


The Doctor wasn’t used to hearing the word no said to him. Well, that wasn’t precisely true. He’d heard a lot of noes over his lifetime, and he’d gone against the naysayers often enough, but he wasn’t used to companions saying no. Or potential companions. He felt, in a lot of ways, that it should be an honor just to be nominated…er…asked. Of course maybe that was him being pretentious. Maybe that’s why Rose had said no. Already he could tell this body was going to be pretentious, and cranky, and irritable, and…well, really in need of a companion like Rose Tyler. There was something about the girl that had changed everything for him in one crazy, suicidal moment and it just felt wrong to leave Earth without her.

But she’d said no. Again. He’d been sure, absolutely sure of it, that if he came back and mentioned it also travelled in time that she’d come. It was clear that she’d wanted to the first time he’d asked, but responsibilities were holding her back. He’d thought time would be the thing that would do the trick. But that useless lump she called a boyfriend was still clinging to her, still holding her back when she could be so much more if she stepped forward and…

And what? Into his arms instead of that wasted bit of humanity’s? He really was getting old if he thought she’d look at him like that. And why was he looking at her like that anyway? She was human and young. He didn’t even remember what it was like to be that young. Was he ever that young? And why was he still here waiting like he thought she’d come running back to him? He’d asked her twice and she’d clearly said no. Clearly. Very clearly.

He sighed. It was just that Rose Tyler was supposed to go with him. He felt it in his gut. He didn’t, as he was tempted to, peek at the time lines, but he still understood it to be true in that special way he had of just knowing things because he was more intelligent than any other creature in the universe. She wasn’t supposed to throw herself away by staying stuck in a rut, in a life that was less than ordinary and…well, really no life at all.

Time hadn’t done it, but maybe giving her time would. Maybe if she had a few days to think about it, maybe if he lingered on the fringes of her life, maybe if she saw him hanging around every day, maybe if he asked her again… Yeah, maybe he’d get arrested for stalking a teenager. It was a bad idea to stick around and he knew about bad ideas. Had enough of those in his life so far, him. Still. Maybe.

There were certainly things he could find to do while he let a little time pass for her. The TARDIS was in fairly bad repair, damage leftover from the war. He swallowed hard. He didn’t like facing just what the consequences had been to his ship, but she’d been groaning badly on the few short hops he’d taken with Rose. He could move her somewhere. Somewhere out of the way but visible to those who knew what they were looking at. The back alley of the Estate where Rose lived would be a nice, inconspicuously conspicuous spot.

He heard the TARDIS laughing at him, or at least the approximation of what he’d always reckoned was her laughter, but he sensed she agreed with him about Rose. She certainly didn’t try to take him somewhere else, but landed almost meekly where he programmed her to go. He turned on the monitor so he’d have a clear view of anyone who might just happen to walk across the playground and started tinkering.



Rose Tyler sighed. It hadn’t taken her long to get a new job after Henrik’s blew up. Well, mainly because Mickey had helped. The girl who answered the phones and made the appointments at the garage where he worked had gone on maternity leave and the temp, a mouthy redhead who didn’t like the boss, had not lasted long. Rose had worked the customer service desk a few times at Henrik’s and had answered enough phones that her minimal experience plus the fact that she had been available to start immediately was pretty much enough. Being Mickey’s girlfriend had clinched it since the boss wanted to keep his best mechanic happy. And, as Mickey had told her, a monkey could work the front desk.

Still, it was the most boring job she’d ever held. At least at the department store she’d gotten to move around, talk to dozens of people, if not hundreds on a busy day, and there had been some variety to what she did, even if 80% of the time it was just folding and refolding shirts and wiping up sticky handprints off of every mirrored surface in the building.

When she’d worked at a chip shop there’d always been the possible excitement of someone putting their hand in the fryer or accidentally setting off the Ansul System and filling the kitchen with fire suppressing foam or calling the police because crazy Mr. Renfroe had wandered into the restaurant and taken off his traditionally worn kilt again.

Here, she just sat at a desk, answered a phone that rang maybe four times an hour, and handed people their keys back after they’d paid at the cashier’s desk. She got an hour off for lunch and once Mickey figured out that she most emphatically did not want to go back to his flat for a nooner every day, or at all when he was still acting like a prat about the Doctor being an alien, she’d been stuck in the break room with him ignoring her and watching whatever footie match was being broadcast or rebroadcast at the moment. It was mind-numbing. After a week she was ready to climb the walls.

Maybe it wouldn’t have been so horrible if she hadn’t seen what her life could be, if she hadn’t been so very tempted to explore the universe with a certain man in leather… Sometimes she regretted her decision of not going off with the Doctor, especially with the turn in attitude Mickey had had lately. She was starting to rethink that relationship. She and Mickey had sort of drifted together after Jimmy Stone had dished out more than she could take. He’d been good for her then, but she wasn’t so sure he was good for her now. She was resenting him and she’d lost all interest in sex…with him, anyway, if she was honest.

She’d seen the way he’d looked at Shireen at Keisha’s party last weekend. Of course the micro dress had had something to do with that, but…he hadn’t looked at her like that in a long time even when her skirt wasn’t much longer than a t-shirt. She hadn’t looked at him, either. Not the same way, not after he’d been so scared he hadn’t even tried to help when the Doctor had nearly been killed. She’d never thought of him as a coward, or herself as particularly brave, but a line had been drawn between what type of people they were and Rose wasn’t sure she could wait any longer for Mickey to catch up.

Aside from that he’d been taking her for granted. Her relationship with Mickey clearly had an expiration date that was rapidly approaching. What bothered her most about that was that she didn’t care as much as she should. She suddenly felt like she had one foot out the door and maybe Mickey did, too. How long was she going to keep going through the motions?

The Doctor had been the most interesting thing to happen to her in…ever, she supposed. When he’d asked her to run away with him, and let’s face it, that was exactly what he’d been asking no matter what his words had been, she’d wanted to. Her heart had leapt so hard at the mysterious stranger’s offer. Turning it down the first time had been harder than anything she’d ever done in her life.

She had thought she couldn’t leave Mickey, and she had known she couldn’t leave her mum. Jackie depended on her. Well, needed her. Well, needed her rent money. Rose sighed. Keisha had offered to take Rose on as a roommate, but she’d worried too much about her mother. She knew she needed to move out and finish growing up, that her mother had to learn to stand on her own two feet sooner or later, but it was hard when she knew there was just enough money to get by on. She hated money sometimes.

When Mickey walked her home every night she felt guilty that she fantasized about walking on alien planets with another man. Had she been crazy giving up the Doctor and his amazing ship? Of course when he’d come back and thrown in time travel she’d known he was a nutter. She’d said no again, and his face…well, desolation wasn’t a strong enough word. Even if he was a little crazy, maybe a little craziness was what she needed. And maybe a little craziness was what she had, because she was starting to imagine she was seeing the TARDIS everywhere, but she hadn’t seen the Doctor and that made her sadder than she cared to admit.

But he was twice her age. Or more. What was she even doing thinking about him like…a gorgeous, sexy stranger? It wasn’t like her to have crushes on older men and she knew she had one on the Doctor. She couldn’t figure it out. He wasn’t her type at all, and maybe that’s what she was most afraid of. Falling for an older man, an alien man, a man who just wore that leather jacket so very, very well… She bit her lip. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t go with him. She knew that. So why couldn’t she get him out of her head?




The Doctor didn’t like to think of himself as a stalker, but he knew that’s exactly what he was becoming. He watched Rose go about her day, watched her walking home with her boyfriend noting that they didn’t hold hands or even really seem to pay attention to each other, except once when a car had raced around the corner and Mickey had flung his arm out to keep Rose from stepping into the street. Mickey still cared enough to try to keep Rose alive but the relationship was definitely on the rocks.

Still, a stalker was exactly what he felt like. Observing from a distance would have been one thing, but he’d even gone up to the door of her mum’s flat and almost knocked not once, but twice. Only the idea of being stuck in the same room with that randy mother of hers had stopped him. As he’d been leaving he’d caught a glimpse of Rose through her bedroom window and had to force himself to look away. He did not need to cross the line into a peeping Tom.

But he couldn’t stop himself from watching her. He had seen her cutting across the back alley on the way to a party or a night out, in a skirt so short it should have been illegal and had stirred things within him that should have long since quit stirring. She’d stopped and stared hard in his direction, but hidden in shadows as he was he knew she couldn’t see him. Still, it was as if she sensed him nearby. Her face looked sad for a moment, before she shook her head and moved on with her gaggle of girls. They’d been laughing and talking and having a good time when she caught sight of the TARDIS.

She’d stared at it thoughtfully for a moment before shaking her head again and walking on. Was she thinking about what she’d left behind or did she just think him desperate to still be hanging around? He wondered where she was going, if it was a club or a pub or a private residence. If it was a public place maybe he could go in and accidentally bump into her. Careful to stay back far enough he trailed her to her destination. A pub. He hurried back to his ship. The benefit of a time machine was that he could get there before her. If he was there first there was no way she could accuse him of stalking her.

He arrived in the alley behind the pub twenty minutes before he’d first seen her and plopped himself down at the bar. He was eating chips and nursing a dark ale when Rose and her friends burst in, lighting up the place with their happy chatter. He shot a dark look in their direction, the girls all far too chipper for his mood. Rose caught sight of him then and her face broke out into a beaming smile, but one she’d quickly shuttered. Instead she directed a puzzled glance in his direction, before being pulled to the back of the pub by her friends towards the juke box.

He turned away from her, but he could feel her eyes on his back from time to time. He should ask her again. He knew he should. But it hadn’t been long enough. She had to realize how ordinary her life was, really let it sink in, before he asked again. He pulled a coin out of his pocket. Tentacles he asked her, antennae he got the hell out of there and let her get on with her life. He tossed it in the air and watched it clatter down onto the bar. The stupid Crespalian quarter managed to land edge on. He swiped it up and left the pub.

He was half way down the street when he heard the pub bell ring and the clacking of high heels running in his direction. He turned around, heart in his mouth, but it wasn’t Rose. It wasn’t Rose and that disappointed him more than even her saying no to him twice had. What was he doing? Hanging around hoping? Moping? What had he been reduced to by a mere slip of a girl? He hurried to his TARDIS. He was going to leave. He had to get on with his life. But the TARDIS had other ideas, spitting sparks from the center of the console and landing quickly and painfully back in the alley behind the Powell Estate.

Well, then, the more direct approach it was.

Chapter Two: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/475536.html