The Direct (and Not so Direct) Approach (2/4)

[amberfocus]

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Title: The Direct (and Not so Direct) Approach (2/4)
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. AU from the end of the episode Rose.

Chapter One



Chapter Two

The second week on her new job, Rose was surprised to find herself daydreaming about the Doctor, though she wasn’t sure she should be, considering she’d thought she’d seen him in the pub the previous weekend. There’d just been a glimpse at first of a man with big ears wearing leather, his face obscured by his drink, but the very idea that she might be seeing him again thrilled her. He’d glanced her way so briefly and she had smiled fit to split her face, but then he’d turned and she wasn’t quite so sure anymore it was him.

Lots of guys had big ears. Lots more guys wore leather whether they should or not. He was a should, but that didn’t mean he was the Doctor. She was sure she’d glimpsed the TARDIS in her neighborhood twice now, and heard the engines at least once. Keisha, Shireen, and Angela all pulled her with them to claim a table and to look at the music selections before sending one of them up to the bar to get drinks. Rose volunteered to go. She’d just gotten her last paycheck from Henriks, since the books were kept off site. It was a couple weeks later than it should have been, but it was here and she had that much to celebrate.

Rose stepped up to the counter and sneakily looked down the bar just in time to see the man flip a coin. He looked angry at the outcome and grabbed the bit of money, shoving it into his pocket and grumping away. She thought about running after him just in case it was him, but her joy and embarrassingly enough, desperation at possibly seeing him again, held her back. Much like life had done when he’d offered to take her away from all this. If it wasn’t him, what would she say? And if it was him what would she say?

Maybe it was silly to think he was still hanging around but she could have sworn she had seen these shadow glimpses of the TARDIS parked on the estate. They weren’t very clear, but the Doctor had mentioned it was protected by a perception filter. Maybe only those invited in could see it clearly and she was no longer on that list, but still, something was breaking through, she knew it.

So when Tuesday morning rolled around and Rose was once more settled behind the desk at the garage she wasn’t totally shocked when a familiar Northern voice had interrupted her very important moment of staring off into space to ask her, “Where’s the parts department?”

“You,” she said, rather rudely, in surprise.

“And you,” the Doctor said, though something in his expression made her think it was not quite as big a surprise for him as it was for her. Or maybe she was just flattering herself. “Found a new job, I see.”

“Yeah.”

“I can see the appeal. So much better than traveling in time and space.”

She glared at him. Did he have to be such a prat about it? “What did you want?” she asked.

“Parts…department.” He spaced the two words out.

“Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid,” she told him. Then she pointed across the room at the big sign that said PARTS in foot tall letters. “I have to say, you’re not so good at seeing the obvious.”

The Doctor made an irritated noise. “Neither are you.” His comment was very pointed. She chose to ignore it.

“I was that night.”

“A total fluke. Anyone could have missed it,” he said.

“I didn’t,” she said.

“I know,” he said quietly. “That’s why I need someone like—.”

“I can’t go with you,” she interrupted, the burden of staying behind and tending to her responsibilities suddenly weighing in heavily and making the wrong words pop out of her mouth.

“I wasn’t asking,” he said though he clearly had been. His eyes suddenly seemed ineffably sad.

“Then why are you here?” Give me a reason, any reason, to change my mind, she thought.

He paused and the look he gave her made something break a little inside her. The moment was gone as quickly as it had come, his face becoming an impenetrable mask. “I need to fix my ship up a bit. Need a…coily thingamajig,” he said.

“Is that a technical term, coily thingamajig?” she asked him with the first hint of a smile.

He smiled back, responding to her little bit of warmth, and it almost blinded her. Damn, but he was beautiful when he smiled. “Very technical.”

“So what’cha need it for?” she asked.

“The time rotor,” he said.

“What?”

“The up and downy bit in the middle of the console has stopped going up and—.”

“Down?” she asked with a grin.

“Pretty much.”

“Ah.”

“So I need to fix it.”

“Okay,” she responded.

“Which means I’ll be around for a while.”

She couldn’t control her smile at the sound of that. “Really?” she asked trying to sound as nonchalant about it as possible.

“Really. And I’d like to spend some of that time with you.” His words said one thing, but her mind heard as much as possible of it with you.

Her phone rang, breaking the spell she’d been under. She reached for it, but his hand covered hers on the phone. That same thrill of tingles that had raced through her every time he’d grabbed her hand in the past was racing through her again.

Weakly she tried to shoo him off. “I need to get back to work,” she said, shaking his hand off hers.

“You get a lunch hour here?” he asked like her answer didn’t hold any importance whatsoever.

“Yeah,” she said. “In an hour.”

“Doing anything special?” he asked.

She thought of the dismal break room and another boring footie match. “No,” she said emphatically.

“Good. I’ll be back in an hour. You, Rose Tyler, are coming to lunch with me.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Oh, you want to,” he told her with a knowing grin. Even smirking he was sexy as hell. He began to stride from the room.

“Hey!”

“What?”

“What about your coily thingamajig?” she asked. Her smile could not have been any bigger.

“Oh…right.” He gave her a sheepish look and backtracked to the parts department, picking up what he needed, and waving jauntily at her as he left. She giggled to herself as he left. Either he’d come here knowing full well it was where she was working because he wanted to see her again and the part had been a complete and total fabrication, or talking with her had made him forget altogether what he’d come in for. Either way, she liked it.



The Doctor arrived back in front of her desk in exactly one hour. This time she smiled the moment she saw him. His hearts felt ten times lighter already. She gathered her purse and her jacket and told the man in the parts department she was going and to cover the phones while she had lunch. He glanced from her to the Doctor curiously. “What should I tell Mickey?”

“Tell him I’m tired of football,” she said emphatically.

When they made it outside she turned to him. “So where are you taking me?”

“Anywhere you want to go,” he said.

“Anywhere?”

“Anywhere, anywhen,” he said.

“Doctor,” she began.

“There’s a nice chippy around the corner. Will that do?” he asked as if that was all he’d ever intended to say. “I’d take you somewhere nicer, but I might not get you back to work on time.”

“It’s perfect,” she said. “I love that place.”

It didn’t take long for them to walk there, but the Doctor had a hard time not reaching out and grabbing her hand. He told himself over and over again that he didn’t want to spook her, but his palm was itching to be against hers.

As they settled into the restaurant after ordering their fish and chips the Doctor stared at her. She was playing nervously with the hood string of her jacket. The table was small and one of her feet was between his, her leg pressed against his. He couldn’t stop himself. He reached across the table and picked up her hand. This time she didn’t try to shake him off as she had with the phone earlier and he smiled.

“I’m going to be here for a long while,” he said. He emphasized the word long. “Making repairs to the TARDIS.”

“Are you?” she asked. She didn’t seem unhappy about the news and her fingers tightened reflexively against his.

“Yeah, I am.”

“That’s…nice,” she said. He squeezed her hand lightly and she bit her lip. “Is that…is that the only reason you’re still here?” she asked. “To fix your ship?”

“I think you know the answer to that,” he said. He turned her hand over, his fingertips tracing across her palm.

“Why me?” she asked. “Why do you want me to go with you?”

The counter girl called their number and the Doctor jumped up to retrieve their order. He brought the steaming food and the icy cold drinks back to the table. She gave him a steady look until he answered her question.

“You’re smart,” he said ticking things off on his fingers. “You can think on your feet. You’ve already saved my life once. You make me laugh. You see the obvious, even when I don’t.”

She grabbed his hand and brought it back down to the table again and didn’t let go. “Are those the only reasons?”

He stared at her with a look she could only describe as smoldering. Everything inside her that could turn over, did. “I like you,” he said softly. There was no mistaking what he meant by that and his intensity scared her.

“But…Mickey.”

The Doctor snorted. “Really?”

“I know he’s kind of—.”

“Ridiculous?”

“Needy,” Rose corrected, “But he was there for me when I needed him. And he got me this job. I owe—.”

“You never owe a man anything!” the Doctor declared.

“Even you?” she whispered looking down and away.

“I wouldn’t expect anything from you. Ever. Wouldn’t demand it, wouldn’t ask it of you,” he said. “I’m not that sort of man.” Her eyes jumped back to him. He had just allayed her fears. “But if you asked,” he said haltingly. “If you wanted…me…” He gestured openly with his hands.

She swallowed hard. She knew that she did. Maybe not exactly now, but somewhere down the road, in the future, when she knew him better. When they’d had time…

“It really travels in time?”

“It does.”

“Because when you said that part I thought you were a nutter, but then I thought about it and…why not? If a ship contained in that tiny little box that is bigger than a house on the inside, well, why can’t there be time travel?” she asked.

“She’s not bigger than a house. She’s more than that. There are gardens inside and orchards. She grows everything I eat, my beautiful ship does. There’s three stories of period and modern day clothing to choose from that would have made Henrik’s buyers hang their heads in shame. There are more rooms than I’ve ever been able to count, including a full ships galley and several bedrooms with en suite bathrooms.”

“What was she, a luxury liner in a former life?”

“An observation station for scientists, but my kind couldn’t go anywhere without their pomp and circumstance. They could dress like the people in whatever time or place they were observing and not get caught for looking out of place. Of course later we developed the ability to use the perception filter. It’s why I could walk into the presence of your queen dressed like this and she’d not notice I wasn’t in the best finery.”

“I wouldn’t try it,” Rose said skeptically. “That was you at the pub the other night, wasn’t it?

“I was at a pub,” he allowed.

“Were you hiding from me?”

“Nah. Couldn’t have known, could I, that you’d be coming in?”

“I thought it was you. You were filtering then, weren’t you?”

“Might have been. Don’t usually think about it.”

“And the TARDIS?” Rose asked. “Is she parked round the back of the Estate?”

“Sometimes.”

“I keep thinking I see her.”

“Then you’re cleverer than most,” he told her.

"Clever enough that you really want me around all the time?"

“So are you thinking about changing your mind then?” he asked trying to keep the hopefulness out of his voice.

“Do you still want me to?” He nodded.

“My mum,” she said. She took a sip of her beverage.

“Is not coming with us,” he told her.

Rose choked on her drink. “I mean, I can leave Mickey, yeah, but my mum. She…she can’t afford the rent without me,” Rose said.

“I can give you money.” Rose’s face went expressionless and she pulled her hand away from his. “I didn’t mean it like that!” he said in horror. “I just told you I would never…” He started again. “I could hire you on as my assistant. You could, I don’t know, cook and do the laundry.”

Rose’s face went mutinous and he immediately knew his words had been the wrong ones. “I’m not gonna be your maid,” she said flatly. “Time and space you said, and adventures, but if that’s all you want me around for, forget it. This was a bad idea. You and me are never gonna work.” She stood up, leaving her food half uneaten, and stormed out.

He watched her go, inwardly cursing himself. He’d really put his foot in it. He’d just thought if she earned her keep, she’d feel better about it, but menial “women’s” work had obviously been the wrong way to go. Maybe she thought he thought she couldn’t do any better. He didn’t like to think of himself as sexist, but he knew that most of his incarnations had been, and most of the girls he’d had along over the years had not exactly been feminists, but the few that had been... Well, Tegan would have boxed his ears, Sarah Jane would have given him a tongue lashing and Leela would have cut him (or at least threatened him) with her knife if he’d even suggested such a thing as housework.

He just didn’t know enough about Rose to figure out what she’d be good at, other than helping him stay alive. Not to mention giving him a reason to live. He would have to figure it out, though. If money was the only thing that was holding her back, he’d have to find a way for Jackie to have it. He wondered where Rose’s dad was in all of this. Was he dead, divorced, or still around but a deadbeat? Had Jackie had a one night stand that had been responsible for Rose’s birth? Was her father a married man?

His mind kept going back to employing Rose as a solution, if he could even get her to talk to him again. Maybe she was good at clerical work. She was working as a receptionist. He needed help in his library, cataloging the books and getting them into some semblance of order. If she’d been any good in school, maybe she could help him with some of the research he liked to do when he came across abandoned planets and was curious as to what had happened, though lately what had happened had been a direct result of the time war. He cringed away from that thought and tried to refocus again on what Rose might be able to do.

She worked at the same garage as Rickey, so perhaps her useless boyfriend had taught her a few things about mechanical repairs. He could certainly use a hand with fixing the TARDIS. His thoughts stopped dead in their tracks. He trusted Rose enough already to let her touch his precious ship. How did that happen? Was he just an old fool? Maybe Rose was right. Maybe it was a bad idea, him, her, all of it. Still, in for a penny, in for a pound.

He finished his food and the rest of hers and headed back to the TARDIS. He’d give her a few days to cool off, and then he’d try again.

Chapter Three

Comments

[tracy-lousia.livejournal.com]

Oooh first, I've never been first before, lol. Loving the way The Doctor always seems to put his foot in his mouth in this story. And I also like the fact that Rose is attracted to him but is trying to fight it. I hope she gives in soon ;-) When's chapter 3 coming? Soon I hope, lol. x

[fishface44.livejournal.com]

I was looking forward to this all day at work!!!I love how you write Nine!!!!

[bloose09.livejournal.com]

Nice chapter. I love your dialog and the easy banter that Nine and Rose share in this installment.

Confident Nine is hot:
“Good. I’ll be back in an hour. You, Rose Tyler, are coming to lunch with me.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Oh, you want to,” he told her with a knowing grin. Even smirking he was sexy as hell. He began to stride from the room.

Mr Smooth he is not though. Poor Nine just doesn't get women at all.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

oh, Rose, oh, Doctor! so many misunderstandings!

They were doing so well and then Boom, he puts his foot in it!!

I kind of liked when Eleven showed up in the Lodger with a brown paper bag full of cash. Rather a lot of cash is always a good thing!!

[valiant-queene.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha! Poor Doctor. So confident and smirk-y at first (which was thoroughly hot, by the way) and then suddenly saying all the wrong things to Rose (which was awkwardly adorable).

Poor Rose. Once she cools down a little I hope she'll realize that that wasn't exactly what he meant. It'll be fun to see what he tries next!

[bluedragonhawk.livejournal.com]

Hehehe! I have really been enjoying this story so far! I've never thought of what would happen if Rose had said no twice. And here is Nine going after her anyways! *grin* I like his persistance! Can't wait to read more!

[susanb03.livejournal.com]

Oh boy oh boy!! :)

[saucy-duck.livejournal.com]

Ouch, not a good move Doctor. I love how you're writing the characters. It's very believable, in that if they had not just jumped straight into adventure mode and actually had to try and learn to be around one another, this is exactly how it would be. I think this might be a good way for them to work in to being closer to equals rather than the genius and his pretty companion. He should know that Rose is strong and has skills of her own.

[phoenikxs.livejournal.com]

So great. I love their banter, it just feels so much like the Doctor and Rose. They could meet anywhere under any circumstances and still instantly be comfortable with each other.

Oh Nine, when you say the wrong things you don't do it half way :)

[lumendea.livejournal.com]

This story is all sorts of shades of awesome. Rose is great and clearly wants to go, but I have to agree with her doubts as a reasonable person. I'm really looking forward to the next chapter.

[maniacalshen.livejournal.com]

Okay, so first I'm laughing because not only is Nine a creepy stalker, he's BAD at it. She didn't even know it was him when he wanted her to! Then, I'm full of tons of warm-fuzzies.

The middle of this chapter is adorable.

But after that comes the head-desk. That was an impressive string of verbal failures. XD

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

*grins* Yeah, despite all the young women he's had on his ship over the years, you'd think he'd know how to talk to them, but not so much. Chapter 3 is now up.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I almost feel guilty about missing a day, but eh...next chapter is up now, so not too much.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

*giggles* He is so confident and sexy and then later he just totally falls on his face. Poor Nine. *pets him*

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but misunderstandings are fun to write! Plus, it's just no fun without some obstacle to overcome.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I like writing a take charge Nine and he was definitely doing that here. Until he feel flat on his face. I think you'll love what he does next.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I am having so much fun writing it. I hadn't really thought about it either until I saw that prompt, because really, who'd say no to him twice? I'm surprised it hasn't been done much (or at all that I've seen, but that doesn't mean it's not out there somewhere). Of course he would still go after her. He's a man who knows what he wants and will find a way to get it. Next chapter is up now.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

And just you wait, my dear.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Yeah, I definitely want them to come to an understanding closer to equals and for them to connect strongly on an emotional level.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I'd like to think they would. And there is nothing I like better than writing banter. It's so much fun! No, no halfways with Nine. He puts both feet fully into it.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I love writing it. Yeah, she does want to go, but she wants to know that things will be okay if she does leave.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

He's really, really bad at it. *grins* Well, he can't be good at everything, can he? Thank you.

[who-in-whoville.livejournal.com]

I really like how he is trying to find a way to offer her employment so that she can care for her mother. In the end, though, I am sure it will not be necessary as nothing will stop her from saying yes.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. He figures something out.

[emraldeyedauter.livejournal.com]

I'm loving this story. Love how he went in to get a part, asked Rose out for lunch and then promptly forgot about the part for the TARDIS. Sounds like a typical bloke lol. Hee and then he really stuffs up. Yep good idea Doctor, invite a girl to come along to cook and clean. Sheesh. Rose should have slapped him lol.

[jer832.livejournal.com]

They bicker and tease and play the game like such obvious meant-to-be's. Lovely. I really liked this: “I have to say, you’re not so good at seeing the obvious.”
The Doctor made an irritated noise. “Neither are you.” I had thought the writing on "Rose" was sharp and crisp. Now I'm wondering what you would have done.