amberfocus | Another Day, Another Elephant (1/4)

Title: Another Day, Another Elephant (1/4)
Author: Amberfocus
Characters/Pairings: Nine/Rose, Jack Harkness
Genre: Action/Adventure, Romance
Rating: Teen
Beta: amyo67
Summary: Jack's missing--and there's an elephant in the console room. Is it just a silly prank or is there something far more serious going on than meets the eye?
A/N: Written for the Hearts in Time Summer Adventure Ficathon.

Chapter One

The door to Rose’s bedroom slammed open and the Doctor barged inside, causing Rose to scramble for her dressing gown and hastily pull it over herself. “Doctor, what the hell are you doing?”

“Are you responsible for that—that---thing?” he demanded.

“Excuse me, half naked here,” she scolded disapprovingly.

“Whoops,” he said completely unapologetically. “Are you?”

“Half naked?”

“Responsible?” he asked exasperated.

“Am I responsible for what thing?” she grumbled, realizing she wasn’t going to get an apology, and locating the tie behind her. She looped it around her body, tying it into place over her skimpy bra and kickers.

“There is an elephant in the console room.”

Her mouth fell open. Okay, she could forgive him for not knocking in this particular case. “What?” she asked a moment later as she got over her surprise. “You can’t be serious.”

“Oh, you’ll find I never joke about pachyderms, Rose,” he told her firmly.

“Too much like picking on a family member?” she asked.

She grinned as he tried to work out whether she was insulting his nose or his ears and it deepened when he realized her zinger included both. “Oi, Rose!”

“Think on that the next time you call me an ape, then.”

He rolled his eyes, grabbed her by the arm and propelled her out of her room, down the corridor, and into the control room.

She stopped dead, or tried to, but his hold on her continued to propel her forward and she stumbled. “Can I have my arm back now?” she asked a bit irritably. She rubbed it when he let it go and stared at the creature before her. It wasn’t an actual elephant from Earth, mind, but the nearest alien equivalent. Still it was a good match in appearance, only sort of purple and with scales.

She tilted her head to the side and walked a full circle around the creature. The elephant nudged Rose's hand with her trunk and Rose petted her a bit. No matter how she looked at the poor thing, standing there forlornly by one of the coral support struts, she still couldn’t get her mind wrapped around the fact that she was actually inside the TARDIS. Or how she had gotten there.

“How’d she get here?” she asked.

“If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say it was Jack.”

“Jack?”

“Well, was it you?”

“No.”

“And it wasn’t me, so that just leaves Jack.”

“Or the TARDIS is playing a joke on you.”

The Doctor glanced down at the floor of the TARDIS and Rose wrinkled her nose as she followed his line of site. “I don’t think so.”

“Why would Jack bring an elephant onto the TARDIS?” she wanted to know. “I mean, who does that?”

“Could be his latest girlfriend for all we know,” the Doctor said sourly. “Wouldn’t surprise me.”

“I don’t think he’s that flexible, Doctor,” she said glancing at the elephant. There was a large container full of water and a trough full of food within reach of the creature’s trunk. At least the animal had been provided for. “Where is Jack?” she asked.

“No idea. Not on the ship,” the Doctor said. “I’ve looked. The TARDIS has looked.”

“Ooo, a mystery,” said Rose enthusiastically. “No Jack and an elephant in the TARDIS. Shall we go and see what we can find out?”

“Yeah, but first let’s make sure it can’t go into any of the other rooms. This one’s going to be hard enough to clean up.”

The Doctor walked over to the elephant and quickly tethered it to the coral strut with one of the large cables that normally ran power to the console. As long as he hooked it up again before they took off, and Rose made a mental note to remind herself to remind him to do just that, they’d be fine. “Too bad I can’t do this to you to keep you from wandering off,” he said eyeing the cables speculatively.

“If you plan on tying me to the TARDIS you better have far more interesting plans for me than just keeping me from wandering off,” she told him tartly. She grinned at the Doctor’s sharp intake of breath and the way even the tips of his ears turned pink. He studiously ignored her as he double checked his knots.

The elephant reached out with his trunk and smacked the Doctor on the bum. Rose giggled at the Doctor’s indignant, “Oi!” and then giggled harder when he turned to glare at her for laughing. The elephant actually managed to look a bit cheeky, if that was possible.

“I think she likes you, Doctor,” she said with a grin.

“I get enough of that from Jack. One person around here with a ridiculous crush on me is enough, thanks,” the Doctor replied gruffly.

“I know,” Rose teased. “You’d think the TARDIS was a love shack, the way you attract ‘em,” she said following him to the door.

“You’re the one that brought Captain Jack home, not me. Not to mention Adam. What is it with my companions bringing in strays?”

Rose wrinkled her nose at that bad memory. “That’s not fair,” Rose said smacking his arm lightly. “Adam was a lapse in judgment, but Jack has proven useful and you know it. And I have never brought home an alien life form.” She glanced at him and her mouth curved into a teasing smile. “Well, except when I took you to meet Mum,” she added with a smirk. The Doctor snorted. “And that doesn’t really count, because it’s not home anymore.”

He gave her a soft smile. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she said with a simple shrug. “This is home.” She patted the wall of the ship. “Or anywhere with you, really.” His smile turned into a full-on manic grin. Her hand reached for the doors of the ship.

“You forgetting something?” he asked her, his hand coming down on hers and preventing her from turning the handle.

“What?” she asked turning toward him and seeing the great good humor in his eyes.

“Clothes? Shoes? A coat? Not that I mind you running around in your pretty blue and black knickers and matching bra and that scrap of a dressing gown all day, but I think the townsfolk outside that door might have a thing or two to say about it,” he told her.

Rose blushed furiously and backed away from him. “Right,” she said turning tail and scooting back up the ramp. “And when I get back, you and I are going to have another talk about knocking.”

“My ship,” he called after her. “You should be happy you even have a door on your bedroom.”

“Might as well not do for all the attention you pay it,” she tossed back as she disappeared.

When Rose reappeared again, more suitably attired in faded blue jeans and a form-fitting sky blue t-shirt, he quietly handed her one of her jackets that had been hanging over the rail by the front door. “Might be a bit nippy this time of year,” he said shrugging into his own leather jacket.

She struggled into the blue denim coat until he held it steady for her and then they stepped through the front door and out onto the planet’s surface. The Doctor made a big show of locking the front door. “In case any other large proboscidea attempt to wander in,” he said at her questioning glance. “That one’s just a baby, and I don’t want one of her herd trying to come in here looking for her.”

“Good idea. And speaking of good ideas, I want a lock on my bedroom door,” she told him as they started for the town.

“Fire hazard,” he said.

“There’re sprinklers in the ceiling,” she replied with narrowed eyes.

“Not putting a lock on your door,” he said firmly.

“If you don’t I’m going to suspect you like barging into my room without knocking and finding me in my knickers,” she said.

“Who’s to say I don’t?” he asked.

“Doctor! One of these times you’re going to catch me naked and then…”

“And then?” His eyes were sparkling and she wanted to smack him. And snog him. It wasn't fair.

“And then Jack will insist on doing it too for fairness and I might just let him!”

“Don’t think so,” he replied confidently. “And anyway, I’m not doing it on purpose. I just happen to be very lucky. I have to say I really like the blue and black set. They’re almost as nice as the hot pink ones.”

Rose gave in to her urge and smacked him on the shoulder. “The only person who gets to comment on my knickers is the man who takes them off,” she told him. “So shut it, you.”

He reached out for Rose’s hand and despite her annoyance with him, she let him take it. He smiled down at her, and she couldn’t stay mad when he used that particular grin of childish glee. She glared at him anyway to show she meant business. “The TARDIS wouldn’t actually let me in if you were naked, Rose,” he said softly. He stroked the inside webbing of her thumb. “Not if you didn’t want it.”

“And if I did?” The words just slipped out and Rose felt herself flush and she had to turn away from the sudden intensity of his gaze.

His tone changed abruptly. “Come on. Let’s go see what kind of trouble we can get the Captain out of.”

Rose sighed and gave up her mild anger, smiling up at him cheerfully as their fingers threaded together. They started walking towards the nearby settlement. “I hope Jack’s okay,” Rose said. “This really isn’t like him. He always lets one of us know when he’s going out after that time we accidentally left him on Morindia.”

“He didn’t that time on Floraga,” the Doctor pointed out.

“No one was acting normal on Floraga,” she replied vehemently. That particular planet was rather a sore spot for her and she didn’t like talking about it.

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“For you!” she snapped.

“Rose, I never meant—.”

“I know,” she interrupted sharply. “But you’re not the one who bloody humiliated herself, are you?”

“Rose, it wasn’t your fault. You were under the influence of a—.”

“I know!” she said again.

“I got you out of there before any real damage was done,” he said soothingly.

“Not to my pride,” she retorted.

“It’s not like anyone saw you,” he said.

She pulled away from him and crossed her arms over her chest. “You did,” she bit off the words.

“You made a very good belly dancer, Rose.”

“That wasn’t belly dancing. It was lap dancing.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t call it—.”

“On your lap,” she ground out. “Can we talk about something else, please?”

“I liked it,” he said so softly she was sure she had to have imagined it. When she looked over at him he was gazing off into the distance, but his ears were slightly pink again. Honestly, she didn’t know what to think with him. Sometimes he flirted like mad and if he were any other bloke she’d think he was wildly into her, but he went from hot to cold so often she was completely unsure.

Today was one of those days where he was throwing signals her way left and right and she was pitching them back as fast as she could, but as soon as tomorrow he could be back to being standoffish when it came to acting like there was any sort of an attraction between them. Better to play it safe and ignore it then to let herself believe it and get her heart broken. She shook it off. Friends. They were just friends.

An outbreak of shouting up ahead caught their attention. “Bet you Jack is at the heart of that,” she said with a quick glance up at the Doctor. His manic smile appeared and his eyes lit up.

“Let’s go find out,” he said, and tugging on her hand he pulled her into a run and they headed for the center of the town.

Ch. 2: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/279325.html