Wolf Moon: Chapter Nine
Feb. 1st, 2008 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberfocusChapter Nine: Better With You
The Doctor eyed the woman across from him cautiously. He still didn’t quite know what to think of one Rose Tyler. It had been less than twenty-four hours after he’d barged his way into her life and he’d already basically asked her to be the mother of his children and the savior of his species. Of course, she was being reengineered for it and he was reacting to the chemical romance, but now that it was under control again, it was entirely unlike him to let anyone get as close to him as she was getting. Letting a companion kiss him was on his list of things that weren’t allowed.
If they had been allowed, it should have been him doing the initiating. And it shouldn’t have been timid and fleeting, either. It should have involved far more body contact and he had a pretty good recollection that humans were quite fond of tongues being involved as well. There ought to have been rapid respiration and perhaps a bit of nipping and definitely some sucking on lips. Especially that lower lip of hers. But this little brushing of mouths, well, if he’d been in charge there was no way that it would have been enough. He might have even bent her against the table, or perhaps lifted her up onto the countertop so that he could get at her--.
“Doctor?” Rose asked.
He looked up at her, startled out of his thoughts. She pushed a covered plate of food at him. “Here,” she said.
“What is it?” He managed as he reined his thoughts back under control. Apparently that serum could control only so much. There was obviously going to be a level of lusting that remained and he was just going to have to learn to deal with it.
“Chicken with a mango chile salsa, roasted ginger asparagus, and chips.” Rose lifted the lid from his plate with a flourish.
The Doctor smiled down at the incongruity of the common chips resting next to her culinary masterpiece. “Interesting combination.”
“I’m a chips girl at heart,” she said with a grin that had him thinking about her lower lip again. Really, he might need to make up a slightly more powerful serum for his next inoculation. He tucked into the food and managed to make appropriate noises of appreciation.
“The kitchen here is rather well-equipped,” Rose said.
He smiled slowly at her. “I think you’ll find many things around here are well-equipped.” Was he flirting? How low was he going to sink? Rose gave him a startled look and then flushed a lovely shade of pink, but she offered him a smile.
She cleared her throat. “Yes, well,” she managed.
“You’ll have to be careful in here,” he said. “She likes to be kept just so. She’s been known to hide the refrigerator and deadlock seal the cupboards if I leave a mess in the sink or crumbs on the countertop. Existing on protein bars is not an option I want to see happening again.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Rose said. “The TARDIS and I had a litle talk. There’s going to be some changes.” A note of determination came into her voice.
“Changes?”
“Yeah. In how the two of you get along. Poor ship’s been starved for affection. She needs touching and you haven’t been doing it, have you?” She asked directly.
“We’re not like that,” he said feeling defensive and slightly annoyed.
“I know. You’re not bonded. And that’s not good for either of you.”
“She isn’t mine,” he said. “And she doesn’t want to be.”
“But you travel together,” Rose protested.
“We don’t have anyone else! She needs a Time Lord on board for emotional stability and I need a time ship to travel, but it’s always been a last resort for both of us.” He was starting to get angry, which fortunately was pushing his lusting thoughts right out of his head.
“If you hadn’t noticed she’s not that emotionally stable,” Rose retorted.
“I have noticed, thank you,” he said sharply.
“Well, notice something else, then. Look at the kitchen, Doctor. She’s going to make an effort.” The Doctor glanced around him trying to figure out what his…Rose was going on about. It took him a moment before it really sunk in.
“It’s not pink in here!” He said.
“No. It’s not. Not very observant, are you?” She grinned and there went her tongue again. And there went his mind with it.
“It took some convincing, too. She made me a bedroom and she wanted it all to be pink.” Rose shuddered. “I did pink to overkill as a girl. Now, well I might wear a bit of it, but I don’t want to sleep in a Valentine’s Day card. Or live in one either.”
The Doctor said, “Thank you. I’ve been trying to get her to change the theme around here for ten years.” he looked around the kitchen and smiled. “I like it. Thank you, Rose.” He glanced up at the ceiling. “Thank you, too,” he said gruffly. The TARDIS let out a surprised squeak.
Quickly he changed the subject. “So tell me how you met me. The other me,” he said.
“Are you sure?” She asked. He nodded. She launched into a long and detailed story of her first meeting with the other Doctor. When she got to the part about swinging across a pit of Nestene Consciousness goo, as she called it, to knock some Autons off the other Doctor he stared at her in amazement. She had moved from the table and had started in on washing the dishes and he automatically moved to her side and started to dry them and put them away.
“You risked your life to save him? And you’d only just met him?” He asked.
“Yeah. I didn’t want him getting hurt. I couldn’t just stand by and let them kill him, now could I?” She asked. But she easily could have. It wasn’t every human that stood up to be counted. From what she said her boyfriend had been utterly useless. “And anyway,” she brushed it away, “There was no way out of the warehouse at that point but by TARDIS. And I needed you to fly her.”
He could tell that wasn’t why she’d done it though. She’d done it because it was in her character do to so. “Afterwards he asked me to come with him and I told him no.”
“But--.”
“Shh. I told him no and I thought that was the end of it. His ship disappeared and we started heading home and the way it made me feel was like the universe was ending. Like I’d been offered this gift of an amazing new life and I’d walked away from it because I had responsibilities.”
She shook her head and then glanced back up at him. “I knew from the second the TARDIS left that I’d made the wrong choice and I would probably spend the rest of my life regretting it. But then he did something to this day that I don’t understand because he later told me he’d never done it for any other person. He came back within a couple of heartbeats. He came back and he asked me again. And I made my choice. After that my choice was always to be with him.” She shrugged. “And that’s how it all began.”
“So you just took off with him? A man you’d barely known for twenty-four hours? Left everything behind and took off at nineteen years old?” He asked wondering if she was remarkably foolish or just a very good judge of character.
“I trusted him,” she said with a shrug. “And anyway, you’ve got him beat by a mile. I took off with you less than an hour after meeting you. And you can’t blame it on me being young and stupid now.”
“I doubt very much that you were ever stupid, Rose or he wouldn’t have let you travel with him,” the Doctor said.
Rose pulled the plug on the sink drain and rinsed off her hands then dried them on one of the new yellow towels. Her eyes rose to meet his. “I made my share of mistakes,” she said. “I caused a paradox and brought down the Reapers. I nearly destroyed the world because I wanted to save my Dad from dying when I was a baby. And he took me back, took me back to meet my Dad and I took advantage and saved his life. My father had to sacrifice his life to put things right again.” She sighed.
“It was a lesson I never forgot. I thought for sure he’d chuck me out after that. I think he was planning on it, but…he didn’t. He forgave me for it and he kept me on board. I was never sure why.”
“He didn’t want to be without you,” the doctor said with surety.
“I think he was just used to having someone cooking for him and looking after him around the ship by then. Didn’t want to go back to fending for himself again,” she said.
“No,” said the Doctor. “He didn’t want to be without you.”
“You can’t be sure of that,” she argued.
“Yes, I can,” he insisted, because he was sure.
“No, you can’t. You weren’t there,” she snapped.
“But I’m him,” he snapped back. “And I do know, because you’ve only been here twenty-one hours and already I don’t want to do without you! So don’t tell me I can’t be sure, because I am!”
“That’s just the hormones talking,” she said.
“No, it’s not. I can see what he saw in you and why he wanted you with him even if you did make a stupid, dangerous mistake. I can see it already and I barely know you, but I already don’t want you leaving my ship. And I know why,” he roared.
“Oh, really?” Her eyes flashed at him and she crossed her arms angrily across her chest. “Then tell me why, Mr. Know-it-All,” she demanded.
“It’s because it’s better--.”
“I know, I know,” she interrupted. “It’s better with two, right?”
“No,” he said. “It’s because it’s better with you.”
She stared at him mutely, her eyes wide as she slowly absorbed what he had just said, her defensive posture relaxing and her arms coming back down to rest at her sides. “You, Rose Tyler,” he repeated softly. “It’s better with you.” He reached out and took both of her hands into his, warming to the glow that shone between them at contact. “Already, it’s so much better with you.”
She bit her lip and then looked him straight in the eyes. “Keep this up and Time Lord sex drive or no Time Lord sex drive, I’m dragging you into bed,” she growled.
“Keep looking at me like that and I’ll let you,” he said back without hesitation. To hell with fixing the serum to lessen the remaining need. It was strong enough that he could hold back enough not to really hurt her, though it’d still be a bit rough on her.
He backed her up against the refrigerator, his eyes darkening as he continued to gaze at her. He pulled her tightly up against him. He brought his mouth down on hers, fully intent on carrying out every bit of detail he’d come up with for the next time they kissed.
The TARDIS apparently had other ideas. The ship rocked to one side and they fell to the floor. The TARDIS shuddered and her gears ground. The Doctor managed to move quickly enough to cradle Rose’s fall with his own body. As she picked herself up off him, Rose glanced up at the ceiling and said, “This better not be you being jealous that he has my attention.”
“It’s not,” said the Doctor rising to his feet. “We’ve stopped moving. A bit more roughly than normal, too. And I don’t think we’ve landed.” The ship shuddered again and the cloister bell rang.
“That’s never good,” Rose said.
“Come on,” he said and dashed out of the kitchen and up the corridor to the console room. He raced inside, Rose hard on his heels, and came to a stop so suddenly that she caromed right into him.
“What?” Rose asked. “What is it?”
He raised a hand to the coral support strut that he’d nearly charged into. “She’s beautiful,” he said gently, awkwardly caressing the bit under his hand. Then he shook himself and strode to the console, his hands dancing over the keyboard to bring up information on the computer screen.
“But that’s impossible!” He said.
“What is?” She asked coming up beside him, her hip pressing against him.
“We’ve just passed through a CVE,” he told her.
“And what’s a CVE?” She asked patiently.
“Oh. It’s a charged vacuum emboitment. Only they don’t exist anymore. They haven’t existed since the Time War. Not since Logopolis fell,” he told her.
“That doesn’t explain to me what a CVE is,” Rose said dryly, raising her eyebrows.
“It’s a gateway,” he explained.
“Again with the vague. A gateway to what?”
“Another universe.”
Ch. 10: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/7286.html
The Doctor eyed the woman across from him cautiously. He still didn’t quite know what to think of one Rose Tyler. It had been less than twenty-four hours after he’d barged his way into her life and he’d already basically asked her to be the mother of his children and the savior of his species. Of course, she was being reengineered for it and he was reacting to the chemical romance, but now that it was under control again, it was entirely unlike him to let anyone get as close to him as she was getting. Letting a companion kiss him was on his list of things that weren’t allowed.
If they had been allowed, it should have been him doing the initiating. And it shouldn’t have been timid and fleeting, either. It should have involved far more body contact and he had a pretty good recollection that humans were quite fond of tongues being involved as well. There ought to have been rapid respiration and perhaps a bit of nipping and definitely some sucking on lips. Especially that lower lip of hers. But this little brushing of mouths, well, if he’d been in charge there was no way that it would have been enough. He might have even bent her against the table, or perhaps lifted her up onto the countertop so that he could get at her--.
“Doctor?” Rose asked.
He looked up at her, startled out of his thoughts. She pushed a covered plate of food at him. “Here,” she said.
“What is it?” He managed as he reined his thoughts back under control. Apparently that serum could control only so much. There was obviously going to be a level of lusting that remained and he was just going to have to learn to deal with it.
“Chicken with a mango chile salsa, roasted ginger asparagus, and chips.” Rose lifted the lid from his plate with a flourish.
The Doctor smiled down at the incongruity of the common chips resting next to her culinary masterpiece. “Interesting combination.”
“I’m a chips girl at heart,” she said with a grin that had him thinking about her lower lip again. Really, he might need to make up a slightly more powerful serum for his next inoculation. He tucked into the food and managed to make appropriate noises of appreciation.
“The kitchen here is rather well-equipped,” Rose said.
He smiled slowly at her. “I think you’ll find many things around here are well-equipped.” Was he flirting? How low was he going to sink? Rose gave him a startled look and then flushed a lovely shade of pink, but she offered him a smile.
She cleared her throat. “Yes, well,” she managed.
“You’ll have to be careful in here,” he said. “She likes to be kept just so. She’s been known to hide the refrigerator and deadlock seal the cupboards if I leave a mess in the sink or crumbs on the countertop. Existing on protein bars is not an option I want to see happening again.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Rose said. “The TARDIS and I had a litle talk. There’s going to be some changes.” A note of determination came into her voice.
“Changes?”
“Yeah. In how the two of you get along. Poor ship’s been starved for affection. She needs touching and you haven’t been doing it, have you?” She asked directly.
“We’re not like that,” he said feeling defensive and slightly annoyed.
“I know. You’re not bonded. And that’s not good for either of you.”
“She isn’t mine,” he said. “And she doesn’t want to be.”
“But you travel together,” Rose protested.
“We don’t have anyone else! She needs a Time Lord on board for emotional stability and I need a time ship to travel, but it’s always been a last resort for both of us.” He was starting to get angry, which fortunately was pushing his lusting thoughts right out of his head.
“If you hadn’t noticed she’s not that emotionally stable,” Rose retorted.
“I have noticed, thank you,” he said sharply.
“Well, notice something else, then. Look at the kitchen, Doctor. She’s going to make an effort.” The Doctor glanced around him trying to figure out what his…Rose was going on about. It took him a moment before it really sunk in.
“It’s not pink in here!” He said.
“No. It’s not. Not very observant, are you?” She grinned and there went her tongue again. And there went his mind with it.
“It took some convincing, too. She made me a bedroom and she wanted it all to be pink.” Rose shuddered. “I did pink to overkill as a girl. Now, well I might wear a bit of it, but I don’t want to sleep in a Valentine’s Day card. Or live in one either.”
The Doctor said, “Thank you. I’ve been trying to get her to change the theme around here for ten years.” he looked around the kitchen and smiled. “I like it. Thank you, Rose.” He glanced up at the ceiling. “Thank you, too,” he said gruffly. The TARDIS let out a surprised squeak.
Quickly he changed the subject. “So tell me how you met me. The other me,” he said.
“Are you sure?” She asked. He nodded. She launched into a long and detailed story of her first meeting with the other Doctor. When she got to the part about swinging across a pit of Nestene Consciousness goo, as she called it, to knock some Autons off the other Doctor he stared at her in amazement. She had moved from the table and had started in on washing the dishes and he automatically moved to her side and started to dry them and put them away.
“You risked your life to save him? And you’d only just met him?” He asked.
“Yeah. I didn’t want him getting hurt. I couldn’t just stand by and let them kill him, now could I?” She asked. But she easily could have. It wasn’t every human that stood up to be counted. From what she said her boyfriend had been utterly useless. “And anyway,” she brushed it away, “There was no way out of the warehouse at that point but by TARDIS. And I needed you to fly her.”
He could tell that wasn’t why she’d done it though. She’d done it because it was in her character do to so. “Afterwards he asked me to come with him and I told him no.”
“But--.”
“Shh. I told him no and I thought that was the end of it. His ship disappeared and we started heading home and the way it made me feel was like the universe was ending. Like I’d been offered this gift of an amazing new life and I’d walked away from it because I had responsibilities.”
She shook her head and then glanced back up at him. “I knew from the second the TARDIS left that I’d made the wrong choice and I would probably spend the rest of my life regretting it. But then he did something to this day that I don’t understand because he later told me he’d never done it for any other person. He came back within a couple of heartbeats. He came back and he asked me again. And I made my choice. After that my choice was always to be with him.” She shrugged. “And that’s how it all began.”
“So you just took off with him? A man you’d barely known for twenty-four hours? Left everything behind and took off at nineteen years old?” He asked wondering if she was remarkably foolish or just a very good judge of character.
“I trusted him,” she said with a shrug. “And anyway, you’ve got him beat by a mile. I took off with you less than an hour after meeting you. And you can’t blame it on me being young and stupid now.”
“I doubt very much that you were ever stupid, Rose or he wouldn’t have let you travel with him,” the Doctor said.
Rose pulled the plug on the sink drain and rinsed off her hands then dried them on one of the new yellow towels. Her eyes rose to meet his. “I made my share of mistakes,” she said. “I caused a paradox and brought down the Reapers. I nearly destroyed the world because I wanted to save my Dad from dying when I was a baby. And he took me back, took me back to meet my Dad and I took advantage and saved his life. My father had to sacrifice his life to put things right again.” She sighed.
“It was a lesson I never forgot. I thought for sure he’d chuck me out after that. I think he was planning on it, but…he didn’t. He forgave me for it and he kept me on board. I was never sure why.”
“He didn’t want to be without you,” the doctor said with surety.
“I think he was just used to having someone cooking for him and looking after him around the ship by then. Didn’t want to go back to fending for himself again,” she said.
“No,” said the Doctor. “He didn’t want to be without you.”
“You can’t be sure of that,” she argued.
“Yes, I can,” he insisted, because he was sure.
“No, you can’t. You weren’t there,” she snapped.
“But I’m him,” he snapped back. “And I do know, because you’ve only been here twenty-one hours and already I don’t want to do without you! So don’t tell me I can’t be sure, because I am!”
“That’s just the hormones talking,” she said.
“No, it’s not. I can see what he saw in you and why he wanted you with him even if you did make a stupid, dangerous mistake. I can see it already and I barely know you, but I already don’t want you leaving my ship. And I know why,” he roared.
“Oh, really?” Her eyes flashed at him and she crossed her arms angrily across her chest. “Then tell me why, Mr. Know-it-All,” she demanded.
“It’s because it’s better--.”
“I know, I know,” she interrupted. “It’s better with two, right?”
“No,” he said. “It’s because it’s better with you.”
She stared at him mutely, her eyes wide as she slowly absorbed what he had just said, her defensive posture relaxing and her arms coming back down to rest at her sides. “You, Rose Tyler,” he repeated softly. “It’s better with you.” He reached out and took both of her hands into his, warming to the glow that shone between them at contact. “Already, it’s so much better with you.”
She bit her lip and then looked him straight in the eyes. “Keep this up and Time Lord sex drive or no Time Lord sex drive, I’m dragging you into bed,” she growled.
“Keep looking at me like that and I’ll let you,” he said back without hesitation. To hell with fixing the serum to lessen the remaining need. It was strong enough that he could hold back enough not to really hurt her, though it’d still be a bit rough on her.
He backed her up against the refrigerator, his eyes darkening as he continued to gaze at her. He pulled her tightly up against him. He brought his mouth down on hers, fully intent on carrying out every bit of detail he’d come up with for the next time they kissed.
The TARDIS apparently had other ideas. The ship rocked to one side and they fell to the floor. The TARDIS shuddered and her gears ground. The Doctor managed to move quickly enough to cradle Rose’s fall with his own body. As she picked herself up off him, Rose glanced up at the ceiling and said, “This better not be you being jealous that he has my attention.”
“It’s not,” said the Doctor rising to his feet. “We’ve stopped moving. A bit more roughly than normal, too. And I don’t think we’ve landed.” The ship shuddered again and the cloister bell rang.
“That’s never good,” Rose said.
“Come on,” he said and dashed out of the kitchen and up the corridor to the console room. He raced inside, Rose hard on his heels, and came to a stop so suddenly that she caromed right into him.
“What?” Rose asked. “What is it?”
He raised a hand to the coral support strut that he’d nearly charged into. “She’s beautiful,” he said gently, awkwardly caressing the bit under his hand. Then he shook himself and strode to the console, his hands dancing over the keyboard to bring up information on the computer screen.
“But that’s impossible!” He said.
“What is?” She asked coming up beside him, her hip pressing against him.
“We’ve just passed through a CVE,” he told her.
“And what’s a CVE?” She asked patiently.
“Oh. It’s a charged vacuum emboitment. Only they don’t exist anymore. They haven’t existed since the Time War. Not since Logopolis fell,” he told her.
“That doesn’t explain to me what a CVE is,” Rose said dryly, raising her eyebrows.
“It’s a gateway,” he explained.
“Again with the vague. A gateway to what?”
“Another universe.”
Ch. 10: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/7286.html
