amberfocus | That Which One Cannot Be Without (7/9)

Title:  That Which One Cannot Be Without (7/9)
Author: Amberfocus
Characters/Pairings: Nine/Rose, Jack
Genre: Romance, angst, hurt/comfort, fluff, smut (eventually)
Betas: Amyo67, JeopardyFriendly
Rating: Adult
Warnings: In this story Rose will be having flashbacks to a violent incident where she was beaten by a prison guard and hurt by another man. This is not rape fic and will not touch on that issue at all. I will keep the explicitness to a minimum, but I know this sort of thing can trigger memories in the victims of violence so wanted to post fair warning.
Summary: Rose has lost her equilibrium after a terrible experience and being back on a similar planet is not helping. The Doctor isn't quite sure what to do to rebuild her spirit, but he has to try because losing her is not an option. Neither is letting her go home.
Author's Notes: This fic was written for Wiggiemomsi who won me and 15,000 words in the Support Stacie Auction.
Ch. 1: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/240768.html
Ch. 2:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/241908.html
Ch. 3   http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/242739.html
Ch. 4: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/242950.html
Ch. 5: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/244016.html
Ch. 6:   http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/244402.html

Chapter Seven: Healing Celebration

Rose swallowed hard. “Honeymoon suite?” she squeaked.

For once the Doctor seemed to be perceptive about what she was feeling. “Oh, no, no, I didn’t mean… You only need to play my wife in front of the staff so we don’t get thrown out. Sorry. That’s why there’s only one bed, but there’s a lovely couch that’s certainly comfortable enough for me to spend my time on while you sleep, so no worries there, Rose.”

“I wasn’t worried,” she told him quickly.

“You looked worried.”

“It’s just…what are you expecting out of this holiday, Doctor? From me?”

“I just want to make you happy, Rose.” He turned her around and tilted her chin up. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted.” He brushed the back of his first two fingers over her cheekbone and down her jaw. “Seeing you smile, getting to share your light…that makes me happy. Whatever happens, happens. It’s all up to you.”

He traced over her lips with the pad of his thumb then dipped his head and brushed his lips across hers. She felt his hand in the small of her back pulling her closer and then her own arms crept up to his neck. His arms tightened around her, bringing them into full body contact, her curves melting into his hard, male lines. The Doctor sucked the corner of her bottom lip into his mouth and a delicious shiver washed over her. When he finally broke the kiss she leaned her head into his chest and listened for a moment to the sound of his hearts beating.

“Ready for that walk now?” he asked.

She nodded against the scratchy wool of his jumper. The Doctor let go of her and she stepped away from him but caught up his hand in hers. He smiled at her and rubbed his thumb against the webbing between her thumb and forefinger. She gave his arm a tight hug and then they made their way outside onto the balcony. They paused for a moment just to appreciate the beauty of the enclosed area, the gorgeous red flowers topping lush green plants growing in large pots, and the amazing sea view. There was a private exit leading down to the pool and from there, down to the beach.

Rose paused at the bottom step to take off her shoes and socks and then dipped her toes into the warm, pink sand. “Heaven,” she told him. “How far are we walking? Can I just leave my shoes here?”

“Nah, better take them,” he said. They stepped out further onto the beach. “There’s a fishing village down this way that I’d like to take you to, Rose.”

“A fishing village?” she asked curiously. “Why there?”

“I haven’t been entirely honest about why we’ve come here. Or I suppose it would be fairer to say that I had an ulterior motive,” he told her.

“I sort of figured that out, Doctor, what with the honeymoon suite and all, but I didn’t think it would have anything to do with fishing villages,” she said bumping his shoulder with hers and grinning up at him.

He smiled back at her. “Well, there is that, too,” he said raising his eyebrows. “No, there’s a special reason I’m taking you here. I hope…I hope it’s something you’ll approve of. I did it for you. In honor of you, Rose.”

“Honor?” Rose asked. “Of me?”

“Yeah. On Drifalia, after I took you back to the TARDIS, I put you into a healing sleep and Jack and I, we went back,” he admitted.

“To punish Triven?”

The Doctor’s face hardened. “I don’t want to talk about that, Rose,” he said. “But while you were sleeping, we liberated the entire population of that prison camp and…well, I set them up here. The village we’re going to, it’s two hundred six innocent women, their children, eleven homosexuals because they weren’t treated any better than the women, and any of their spouses they cared to bring along. Which was fifteen men, if I remember correctly.”

“Just fifteen?” Rose asked.

“Many of the women had been turned in to the authorities by their own husbands. Most had been battered before that,” he said. “The underbelly of that society was far worse than we knew when we arrived. I’m just so sorry, Rose, that you had to live it for a week.”

“I’m all right now, Doctor.”

“This can’t make up for it—.”

“It helps.” Rose stopped walking and turned to look at him. “Thank you,” she said. “This…what you did for them, it means so much to me.” She had tears glistening in her eyes as she looked up at him.

“I had to, Rose. I had to do something. I had to do more. I had to do what you would have done if you’d been able,” he said fiercely.

Rose stood up on tiptoe and laid a gentle kiss on his cheek. “Thank you,” she said again hugging him to her. A moment later she released him and they resumed their walk along the shore. A rough rock promontory blocked their path about a half mile away from the villa and they retreated back towards the land, ducking into one of the promised banana groves that littered the island.

“The trees are huge,” Rose said.

“Well, they’re not technically trees. They’re enormous perennials, but their stems grow so tightly packed that they make up a trunk,” he told her. He reached up and pulled down a ripe banana. “You want one? They’re of Earth origin so it’ll taste like what you’re used to,” he told her. “Or was the one you had for breakfast enough?”

“How’d you know I ate one for breakfast?” she asked.

“I tasted it on you,” he told her.

“You…what?” She blinked at him.

“When I kissed you, I tasted it on you. On your lips.”

“Oh,” she said blushing again. It was all so surreal, standing in a banana grove talking with the Doctor about kissing and tasting and—.

“You taste better then bananas, though,” he said.

Rose closed her eyes for a moment and had to take a deep, steadying breath. She startled as she felt the Doctor’s lips come down on hers and she made a little “o” of surprise with her mouth. The Doctor took advantage of the opening, deftly slipping his tongue inside for a brief moment to stroke gently against hers, before just as quickly withdrawing it. Her heart took off and her stomach did a slow turnover as butterflies flitted through it.

He was tentative at first, as if waiting for her permission to take the kiss further, keeping to shallow little flicks. Her fingers fisted in his jumper and she pulled him closer to her body. She gave out a tiny whimper as he deepened the kiss, one of his large hands splaying across the middle of her back and holding her tightly to him. His other hand slipped down her back coming to rest not quite but almost on the curve of her bum.

The Doctor deepened the kiss, his tongue pushing all the way in and sliding against her own. He made a thorough exploration then, and each little movement heightened her excitement. He circled about her tongue before brushing the roof of her mouth. She groaned softly and tried to pull him even closer to her. The hand on her hip began to rise and she felt him loosen the back of her top and slide up onto the bare skin hidden beneath.

The sudden coolness of his hand against the heat of her back made her gasp into his mouth and arch into him. Was that—? It was! If she’d needed any more proof that the Doctor wanted her there’d be no denying it now. He had much more on his mind than stealing kisses underneath a banana, her mind still insisted on calling it, tree. She broke their embrace and pulled back from him.

He opened his eyes slowly, blinking at her as rational thought once again returned to his mind. “How much further to the village?” Rose asked.

“The village?” he repeated dumbly.

Rose smiled at him. It was funny, really, how much the Doctor was like any other male when his ardor was suddenly interrupted. “We were going to see the Drifalian refugees,” she reminded him.

“Oh. Oh, yeah. About another half mile. Rose, I…”

“Yes, Doctor?”

“I really like kissing you,” he blurted.

“I really like being kissed by you,” she said with a cheeky grin. “It’s impressive.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.”

He moved to pull her into his arms again, but she danced back a few steps. “Village,” she reminded him again.

“Village,” he repeated giving himself a little shake. “Yes.” He held his hand out to Rose and she took it, threading her fingers through his.

They resumed their hike, winding through the grove and around the promontory and back down to the beach. A further ten minutes had them upon a gorgeous inlet. Small fishing boats dotted the harbor and she could see primitive bamboo and woven grass huts above the high water mark. A few stucco buildings were being built a little further back, infringing on what the Doctor informed her was a large pineapple field. At least she had already known that pineapples didn’t grow on trees and didn’t make a silly remark about it when he’d told her what they were.

As they approached the village a couple of women dressed in vivid red, yellow, and orange flowing outfits that reminded Rose of what women in India wore on her home planet approached them. It was a far cry from the drab brown and grey ankle-length shifts that they’d worn in prison or even the muted dark greens and blues that the general female population had been confined to.

One of the women broke away from the others and rushed to greet them. Rose realized with a start that it was her cell mate Jencyn who had bathed her wounds after the beatings that had left Rose too weak to stand, and had shared food with her when Rose’s rations had been confiscated due to her defiant behavior.

“Rose!” she said excitedly embracing her tightly.

“It’s good to see you again, Jencyn,” Rose said, tears coming into her eyes. The woman pulled back from her but her hands slid down to clasp both of Rose’s in her own. “I never got the chance to say thank you to you for all that you did for me. Thank you.”

The woman smiled at her. “I’d say you and your Doctor have repaid my kindness one hundred fold. Welcome to Bella Rosa Village. Come, see what we have made of the place.”

She tugged Rose along with her towards the little community, a bemused Doctor following in their wake. “Bella Rosa?” Rose asked.

“After you, beautiful Rose. I insisted,” Jencyn said, “Though no one could think of a better name. And wild roses do grow on the far edge of the village.”

Jencyn eagerly showed her about the village, introducing her to dozens of women and a few of the men that the Doctor had liberated from the prison camp. Everyone was excited to meet the people responsible for their emigration from Drifalia to a planet that was near to paradise. Rose watched the children laughing and playing in the shallows, some with buckets and pails digging clams and mussels, others just splashing happily, their giggles and shrieks carrying over the sound of the crashing tide. Boys and girls played and worked side by side, something that had never been allowed on their planet of origin.

Men and women worked mending nets and winding fishing line from large spools onto smaller ones to attach to bamboo poles. Huge lines of fish hung drying in the sun, and behind them large sheets of edible seaweed. Piles of bananas and pineapples sat at the corner of what was obviously a communal kitchen. Red and yellow onions and braids of garlic hung from pegs on high bamboo poles.

When Jencyn introduced them to Melica, the informal leader of the community, she announced that a feast would be thrown in their honor. The Doctor and Rose protested that no such honor was necessary but the village leaders insisted and they found themselves unable to refuse. The preparations would take many hours so the Doctor helped dig a large pit on the beach for steaming shell fish and Rose found herself up by the new building site helping to put up interior walls in a small stucco schoolhouse.

They broke for lunch at mid-day and after a light meal of fish rolls and some kind of fried tuber that came close to rivaling Rose’s favorite chips, Jencyn took her to the clay pits and they dug clay to take back to the potter. The Doctor was off helping raise another bamboo and grass hut for temporary shelter. After just a few weeks they were still trying to put up enough homes for each family to not have to share. It would be a couple of months of hard work before that happened.

The potter offered to teach Rose how to throw pots and after an hour of trying Rose succeeded in making her first successful bowl. It was much harder than it looked but once she got the hang of it she was able to fire off three in rapid succession. Marna, the potter, asked her what color she’d like them painted and Rose picked out a glaze that was as close to the color of the TARDIS as she’d seen outside police public call boxes. Marna quickly dipped them in paint and left them in the sun to dry. She told Rose to come back in three days after they’d been fired in the kiln and she could have them to take home with her when they left.

Rose was incredibly dirty by the time they were done and it was getting close to feast time so Jencyn whisked her away once again and took her into one of the finished stucco buildings. It was a communal bath, the only place other than the main kitchen that was piped with running hot and cold water. Rose washed up and relaxed in the sweetly scented bath and when she emerged she was presented with a beautiful turquoise outfit like the rest of the villagers wore.

It was incredibly soft, light and airy. She slipped into the trousers then hastily pulled the blouse over her body. Jencyn had absconded with her dirty clothing and although she’d left Rose a pair of utilitarian knickers there was no bra to go with it. She wasn’t used to going braless, not in a ship with two men, and she wasn’t sure about doing it amongst three hundred people either, but she knew that on Drifalia that type of undergarment hadn’t existed so it was no use requesting one here.

At a gentle knock on the door of the room Rose was changing in she called out, “Yes?”

“It’s me,” said Jencyn.

“Come in.”

The other woman joined her, a hair brush in one hand and a bundle of ribbons in the other. She brushed quickly through Rose’s hair and set about weaving the ribbons through it in an elaborate pattern before pinning each section up. When she was finished Rose stared into the little hand-held mirror in awe. She looked like a princess. Okay, it was a bit like a Disney princess, but still…she’d never felt so beautiful.

“Come along. The feast starts in a few minutes and your Doctor waits for you below.” She took Rose’s hand in hers and led her from the bath house and down to the beach. “There he is,” she said pointing.

The Doctor was dressed in white flowing trousers and a loose white top with a rounded neckline that split with a slash at the center and went eight or nine inches down, exposing a fair bit of his upper chest. She had never seen him looking so incredibly gorgeous before and she knew without any doubts or reservations that she wanted him. When he caught sight of her his mouth fell open. “Blimey, Rose,” he said. “I’ve never seen you look so beautiful.”

She smiled at him and walked to his side, slipping her hand into his. She stood up on tiptoe and brushed her lips across his, before pulling his head down to whisper in his ear. “Make love to me tonight.”

Ch. 8: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/246078.html