A Place in Time (18/30)

[amberfocus]

Chapter Eighteen:  Afterglow

“So did they really not have chips in that other universe?” the Doctor asked her, his fingers idly stroking the bare skin of her hip and thigh. “Or were you just putting me on?” It was seven hours later and Rose was seriously considering getting him a T-shirt that read Time Lords Do It All Night Long. And maybe something about mind blowing super novas going off should be included in there somewhere, too. Was she supposed to have seen that in her mind?

“Well,” said Rose, “They had something they called chips. But it wasn’t chips. It was fried daikon strips. It was a reasonable facsimile, but there is no way a gigantic Chinese radish is going to replace potatoes in my heart. Still, there was this one place, Frankie’s Fish and Chips, Mickey and I called it Frankie's Fish and almost Chips, that came really close.” Or maybe a coffee mug that said Time Lords Do It In Four Dimensions, although come to think of it, hadn’t he said something about 27 dimensions once? After his lovely present, she really wanted to get him something, even if it was only a little thing. Maybe they could swing by London. She knew a shop…

“How ever did you cope?” he asked with a playful smile.

She turned and looked him in the eyes. “Chips were nothing,” she said. “I could cope with no chips. Coping with no you,” and tears came into her eyes just thinking it, “that was the hardest thing.”

He put his finger on her lips. “Hush now, luv. It’s over. We’re together and together we’ll stay.”

“But what if--?”

“No what ifs, Rose. They're not allowed. I won’t lose you again.” And the implacable expression on his face told the universe it would be sorry if it ever tried to separate them again. He pulled her tightly into his arms. When he released her he lifted her chin up so he could meet her eyes. His went all soft and sensual. “Want to have another go?” His hands moved intimately across her body in ways that made her gasp.

“I thought it was us humans that were all about the sex?” she managed when she could catch her breath.

“Usually, but once I flip that switch to on, well…” He shrugged. “What can I say?” Turned out it wasn’t much with her tongue in his mouth.

****************************************

“Really, Doctor, I’ve got to eat something. Not to mention sleep. Your Time Lord constitution might allow for you to go this many hours without either, but this poor little Earth girl needs both.”

The Doctor pouted for a moment, but when she continued to look at him sternly he gave her his most loving smile. “All right then, we’ll eat and I’ll let you sleep after.”

“And I still want to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. We should do one of them tomorrow after I wake up.”

The Doctor frowned at her. “But, we have this big bed and it's so comfortable and I think it might even get lonely without us to keep it nice and warm and bouncy and…” He waggled his eyebrows at her and ran his hand across her breasts.

“And you promised,” she said sweetly.

“Fine,” he gave in with bad grace, “But after that…”

“Yes, after that…” She agreed with him. She walked, stumbled more accurately for her legs weren’t sure they remembered how to actually walk, to the kitchen. The Doctor followed behind her, grinning at her inability to navigate the corridor in a straight line.

“I’ll cook,” he said.

“Good,” she said, sinking down into a chair to rest her abused leg muscles. "Because I'm not sure I could." She watched him with a smile, wondering if this had ever have happened in his last body, if he’d be cooking her breakfast right now. Her mind went off on a little daydream with that thought. It was much more likely he'd have bent her over the kitchen table or laid her out as his own personal feast then cooked her something, but...  She started guiltily. Was it being unfaithful if she was thinking sexually about the other him? No, for it was him either way.

Still, she’d like to have known how his other self might have handled things. Something she'd never gotten the chance to do, had been afraid to even think about too much around him then.  She was pretty sure things would have gone differently and she wouldn't have been walking at all.  If the other him had come after her.  If he'd fancied her by then.  Sometimes she had thought he had a few months before the change, something in his eyes, the way he held her too tight, too close, for too long.  Not that she ever complained.

She was jarred from her daydream by the Doctor placing a plate full of steaming food in front of her. “What were you thinking about just then?” he asked her. “You seemed so far away.”

“Just you,” she said. “And how different everything is now.”

“I do want to talk to you about that,” he said, “When you’ve eaten and slept and feel able to have a serious conversation. There’s a lot we need to talk about. Decisions that have to be made.”

“Like what?” she asked him.

“Uh-uh,” he said. “After.”

She tucked into her food. “This is great,” Rose said. “What is it?”

“Oh, a little dish I learned how to make on Seras Beta,” he said. “It’s called Hockdengiarad.”

“Was that before or after we had to pretend we were married so the king didn’t make you marry his daughter?” Rose asked.

“Before,” he said smiling in fond memory. That was the first time he and Rose had ever shared a bed. Of course it had all been completely chaste, well, almost completely chaste, there had been some full body contact when she'd pressed up against him in her sleep and he hadn't pushed her away. He'd had such a need to hold her soft, warm body and she'd seemed to need it, too, even when it was his old body holding her. Even chastely, mostly, it hadn’t stopped it from feeling right to be sleeping beside her. Sometimes when he thought of the time he had wasted…

“Now who’s far away?” she asked him lightly.

“Just thinking.” They finished their meal in silence, but with a myriad of little looks passed back and forth between them. Oh, he loved her. He just completely, utterly, irrevocably loved her.  After the washing up they walked back to the bedroom, her legs much more cooperative this time. When the Doctor slipped into bed beside her she looked up at him.

“I think I actually need sleep, too,” he said. “You wore this poor man out.”

“I wore you out?” she protested.

“So you admit it?” he grinned at her.

“Your incorrigible, Doctor.”

“Thank you!”

She laughed as they snuggled up together. Before long the steady double thump of his hearts had lulled her to sleep and he followed soon after.

*******************************************

“I want you safe, my Doctor. Protected from the false god.” Rose was dreaming. She had to be. So many images flashed through her head, the destruction of the Dalek fleet, Jack coming back to life, kissing the Doctor in his old body. Fragments swirling in her head. “Everything must come to dust.” Everything spinning, mixing about, randomly, out of order from how it happened, something she didn’t remember in her waking hours. “All that is, all that was, all that ever could be.”  The singing, the light. “I can see the whole of time and space.”

“Rose! Rose! Wake up!”

“My head…is killing me.”

“Rose, you’ve got to wake up!” The Doctor’s desperate voice infringed on the edge of her awareness. “Rose! Please, wake up! You’ve got to.”

At last Rose came awake, completely awake and turned towards him in the bed. “You’re glowing,” he said.

She looked down at herself; saw the radiant golden light emanating from her skin. “What’s happening?”

“I think,” he said trying to keep the fear from his voice, “That you need a doctor.”

Ch. 19:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/53718.html