A Sky Without Zeppelins: Chapter Eighteen

[amberfocus]

                                                                    Chapter Eighteen

Donna Noble grins fondly as she turns off her mobile. She’s going to have teasing material for weeks after that phone call. And she’d thought the condom shopping excursion, as she insisted on calling it to Jonathon, had given her lot of ammunition. The poor man is priceless in his cluelessness and embarrassed indignation. She won’t be too hard on him, though. She does like the man a great deal, is actually surprised at how quickly they’ve become friends and how much she looks forward to their daily repartee at work, their lunches out, their absolute and total friendship.

She hopes it works out for him the way he wants it to. She’s never seen a man so smitten before, but even with only her brief introduction to Rose Tyler, she thinks the young woman is worth his adoration. She’s jealous to a certain extent. Not because Jonathon appeals to her in that way, because he doesn’t, but because of the clear and reciprocated feelings between the new couple so deeply in love already if she’s any judge of things. And she prides herself on reading people.

Donna wishes she had that kind of relationship in her life. She wants to be adored, wants to be loved by a man she can love just as fully in return. But her life is devoid of that. She has work and she has a bit of a life outside of work, but the prospects for romance for her are not very strong on the horizon. She ignores the little voice inside her head that says there is one man, sure and strong and magnificent that she’s attracted to, that she might have feelings for if she lets herself go. But she won’t. It is a cardinal rule in the life of Donna Noble that you don’t fall in love with your boss. It makes life too…awkward.

She has found lately that it’s getting harder to ignore that little voice, especially when James Lumin seems to be going out of his way to spend time with her. She’s become more and more involved with the business side of Illuminate, is having her opinion asked constantly, and on a few occasions he’s shocked her by taking her advice and implementing things she has suggested. She lets him intrude far more into her life with work than she ever has with any previous boss, allows herself to be more or less on call, is beginning to suspect that some of the things he calls her in for are rather spurious. Yes, she is compensated very well accordingly, but that’s not the point.

The point…the point is…well, she isn’t really sure what the point is other than that she wouldn’t structure her life around just any job or just any man. James is…special. She clamps down hard on that line of thought, cutting it off before it can go any further. It doesn’t matter. He’s a billionaire entrepreneur and she’s still just a woman who was a temp five years ago before she was plucked out of obscurity and deposited into her girl Friday job, her office management job more a cover for what else she does at Illuminate than anything else. Even if she is tremendously good at what she does now, it’s only one step backwards to finding herself in the steno pool again.

So no matter how handsome, how brilliant, and how special her boss is, she can’t risk making advances towards him. And it’s better this way anyway. She’s happy enough with her job and her life and she doesn’t need a romance to be a complete woman. She doesn’t need him to be a complete woman. No, she doesn’t need any of it. She just…wants it.

With a sigh she shakes herself and tries to push away thoughts of a relationship with the man she’s mind-bogglingly attracted to. It’s just very, very hard when he’s walking towards her with that smile on his face. She steels herself, locks away her emotions and greets him with her own smile, cool, calm, professional. That’s all they can ever be.



Jonathon returns to his flat with his purchases, arriving a half hour before he’s to pick up Rose from work. He’s brought up her suitcase from the boot of his car as well, thinking it rather fortunate that he’d never been able to deliver it to her. Donna had advised him to go with the candles, but not to overdo it. She’d suggested tea lights in small votive holders so there is little danger of fire, two or three scattered across the bureau and the same along the windowsills. She also suggested a light scent, something floral like jasmine that would not overwhelm.

He’d had time to purchase a few other items as well, things he hopes will come in handy for both himself and Rose. Not, mind, the list of items that Donna had reeled off, embarrassing him badly. And she’d been in a public place. He only hoped she’d found a quiet corner. Even if it was her end of the conversation people were hearing, it had still made him blush.

Setting up the votive holders he slips a tea light into each one and places two each on the windowsills and three on the bureau. The remaining two he takes to the bathroom and places on either side of the sink. He sets his little silver lighter next to the candles on the dresser and then puts away the other items he’d purchased.

He checks his watch and then high-tails it out of the flat and down the three streets to Temmel’s. Rose is just coming down the escalator when he walks in the door and her face breaks into a beautiful smile. She hurries down the rest of the way and bounds over to him. She hugs him tightly and then takes his hand and he walks her back to the underground car park of his apartment building.

Once in the car he pulls her into his arms and she ghosts her lips across his, just barely touching him and inducing a little wriggle of anticipation that flows the length of his body and immediately makes him start to get hard. Her tongue flicks out, pushing at the closure of his mouth, begging admittance and he opens beneath the gentle onslaught. She wanders inside, her tongue making careful, slow strokes as she takes her time exploring him. He relaxes into her, lets her carry full control and makes little noises as tiny ripples of pleasure wash through him at her actions.

When she lets go of him he follows her, searching out another kiss and pushing his tongue gently inside, conducting his own reconnaissance across the roof of her mouth. Rose makes a garbled sound and her hands sink into the fabric of his shirt, pulling him closer as he slides against her tongue. She overbalances him and he’s pushing her down into the passenger side door with the weight of his body. His mouth leaves hers and settles onto her neck and she slips one hand down to his bum, caressing the firm muscles there.

In response his fingers pull her blouse free from the waistband of her trousers and skid across the skin of her waist. He increases the intensity of the kiss and moves a hand onto her breast, his thumb rubbing tiny little circles across the satin covered nipple as his fingers gently knead the outer edge of mounded flesh. She sighs into his mouth and her hand trips up his body to the back of his neck and from there into his hair.

When he finally releases her reluctantly a few minutes later they are both flushed and happy and breathless. “Hello,” he says.

“Hello,” she replies with a soft smile. He gathers his faculties together and then backs out of the parking slot and begins the short drive to the university campus. It is just long enough for his breathing to return to normal and his erection to soften enough to be no longer embarrassingly visible. He should be able to walk without difficulty.

Rose has a one day parking pass courtesy of her volunteer position and so they are able to park relatively close to the science building. Close meaning two buildings away, but that is still a far cry from the regular student parking facilities. He wants to walk with his arm about her shoulders, hers wrapped tightly about his waist, but he knows having her tucked into him like that will just return his former problem to full force.

Instead he reaches out and takes her hand, unable to resist rubbing his thumb against the webbing as they walk. She tilts her head to look up at him and smiles in a way that is unintentionally seductive, or maybe it just feels that way because his sex drive is operating on such a high frequency at the moment. He turns his mind to other things as quickly as possible.

“It’s beautiful here,” he tells her, his eyes on the blooming bright pink and white trees surrounding the path they are walking on. Some are a gorgeous, vivid pink and he manages to identify species of cherry and dogwood. They are placed on either side of the pathway and arch into each other, forming a tunnel of blooms.

Rose glances up. “Yeah. I like looking out the window of the lab when I need to think things through. It helps me to focus to have something lovely to look at.” They turn onto another path, this one gravel, that leads up to a set of stone stairs. At the top of the stairs on either side are two more flowering trees, these ones weeping cherry trees in paler pink. Beyond the trees the view opens up to two large buildings connected by a narrow, covered throughway.



“That’s the old part. The observatory is in there,” Rose says pointing to the left and a large, domed, white building with a smaller rotunda on the front. She points to the right. “And that’s the science building with the lecture halls. Mr. Lumin donated the money for that building ten years ago. It was completed in 2000.” It is also large and white, but with much more modern architecture that is quite uniquely shaped. “That bit up in the top is where I’ll be, helping with the lasers for the part at the end.”

“Can I go up there with you?” he asks her.

“It’s doubtful,” she tells him. “There’s not much room up there when you account for the machinery and the other volunteers. But you told me Donna was going to be here in an unofficial capacity so that’ll give you someone to hang out with.”

“I’m perfectly capable of ‘hanging out’ on my own,” he tells her.

“Yesterday morning you were upset because you didn’t want me to leave you last night,” she points out gently.

“But that was about being away from you,” he says softly. “I always want to be with you. I’m…rather addicted,” he grins. “But if I can’t be with you, I’m just fine on my own.” He pushes away the thought of how badly he moped when she chose not to stay.

“You sound like you don’t want to sit with Donna,” she says.

“No, it’s not that. I just…I’m not dependent on other people. I’ve coped for years on my own, Rose.”

She stops and turns to him, reaches up and strokes the side of his face. “But now you don’t have to. You’ve got me. And you’ve got a friend in Donna. You can depend on people without being dependent on them.” She glances down at her feet. “I’m learning that with you,” she adds quietly. She dares a look upwards and he stares at her with open warmth and vulnerability. He can’t resist pulling her into him and kissing her with far more gusto than is strictly appropriate in an institutional setting, even one as beautiful as this. His hands settle on her hips and dig in rather firmly to keep them from roaming where they shouldn’t go in public.

Finally, reluctantly, Rose pushes away from him. “As much as I’d like to stand around here snogging all day,” she tells him, “I need to get in there and do my work. I’ll meet you for dinner around six and then as soon as the big blowout at the end is over we can go back to your flat and…spend the rest of the night…together.” She blushes and he kisses her again, just a quick brush of lips before stepping back and retaking her hand.

She leaves him inside the building a couple of minutes later with yet another kiss in one of the lecture halls and tells him to have a good wander and points to where they’ll meet for dinner, at the base of the stairs that lead up to the gallery in the funky-shaped ceiling of the exhibition hall.



Rose’s heart is beating very quickly as she climbs the stairs to the gallery. She’d blame it on the steepness of the steps but she’s done this many times before and is in very good shape. If she ever has to run for her life she’s pretty sure she can outdistance ninety percent of the population of London. But it’s not the steps that are causing her heart to race. It’s him. Her Jonathon.

She blushes again, the flaming of her face a heat she can feel. He does this to her. Anticipating tonight does this to her. She can’t help but smile. She’s surprised at how ready she is for this. She thought there would be more hesitation or fear, and it’s still possible it will rear up at the last moment, but she hopes it will only be nerves because she’s sure now, more sure than she’s ever been about anything in her life. His showing up at the store this morning was the final link in the chain of things he’s done for her to show her just how much he cares.

He is the sort of man that she wants to spend the rest of her life with. She gasps, her breath hitching in her chest as that revelation washes over her mind, and she stops dead still on the steps. That does scare her a little bit, because it’s so soon to be this sure, and yet she is. Every little moment they’ve had, every big one, has led up to this one thing she recognizes with perfect clarity. He is for her and she is for him. She wants to make love with him more than she’s ever wanted anything in her life, save to graduate from University and get a good job afterwards. And even that she’s not entirely sure of anymore. They may be running neck and neck. He may be winning entirely.

She starts hauling herself back up the narrow staircase and finally reaches the top. She is greeted by Sarah Dunne, Timothy Marrow and Elliot Montgomery. “There you are, Rose,” says Sarah, a tiny little brunette with a rather officious and opposing manner.

“I’m not late, am I?” Rose asks. “I told Professor Cullen I had to work until two o’clock.”

“No, you’re not late,” assures Elliot. “Sarah’s just a bit panicked. Dorothea and David called in sick.”

“And I thought you might abandon us, too,” Sarah says. “They’re so not sick.”

“We can still do it with just the four of us, can’t we?” Rose asks, ignoring Sarah’s attitude.

Elliot shrugs, his broad shoulders rippling. He is a big man, his name at odds with his appearance. He looks like a rugby player, all big muscles and shaggy black hair, but he is not the least bit interested in athletics. He is, however, very strong, and will be responsible for the placement of the laser machines along the gallery.

Tim, on the other hand, is nearly as diminutive as Sarah, blonder than Rose, and quiet. He is brilliant, though and personally built two of the little display robots used for the grand finale. His passion is lasers, and he is responsible for calibrating the twelve machines in the gallery. Sarah and Rose are simply there to keep an eye on the machines, make sure that they don’t topple off their pedestals from the vibrations of the motors when they are started up, and correct any deviations. Normally, there are six people, two to man each machine. Today they will each have to be responsible for three. Rose isn’t too keen on that idea, but they’ll simply have to make do.

Rose greets Timothy with a soft smile and a cheerful hello. He smiles shyly back at her and asks her if she can follow him around with the little case of tools and hand him what he needs as he asks for it. Rose agrees readily. She’d rather do that than work with Sarah and Elliot’s looming presence sometimes unnerves her. She likes Elliot well enough, but they have a bit of a past and it didn’t end as well as she could have liked, though they had eventually returned to being friendly. He is with Sarah now, but even so, Rose still doesn’t like to be left on her own with him.

“You seem happy these days, Rose,” Timothy tells her as she hands him an Allen key of the correct size for him to start unscrewing the bolts holding the casing onto the first laser. She glances over to Elliot who is manhandling a second laser into place under Sarah’s watchful eye.

“I’m always happy,” she says in surprise.

“No, you’re not,” he says simply. “You’re always driven to succeed, enthusiastic about science, determined to learn everything you can, alive with knowledge. But happy? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you happy. You have been these past two weeks. You glow.”

“I am happy,” she admits, “but I don’t think I’ve never been.”

“You take life too seriously, Rose.”

“I have to take it seriously, Tim. I have to work this hard. There’s not anyone else who’s going to do it for me,” she says with determination. “Everything I’ve got, I’ve worked for. No one’s ever handed me a thing. So maybe I’m not little Mary Sunshine like all the other girls around here, but I can’t afford to be!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Rose, stop,” Timothy says holding up his hands. “I didn’t mean… It’s just nice to see you so happy, is all.”

Rose takes a deep breath. “Sorry, Tim. I know you didn’t.” He removes the bolt and hands it to Rose and she slips it into her pocket as he moves to the next one.

“So…is it okay if I ask what’s making you seem so much happier?” Timothy asks and Rose can tell he’s choosing his words carefully.

“I’ve…I’m…his name’s Jonathon,” Rose says slowly taking another bolt from him.

“Ah, so you’ve finally fallen for someone,” he says softly. “Kinda hoped it would be me.”

She turns startled eyes on him. “You never said.”

“You’re Rose Tyler,” he says as if that should be explanation enough.

“Tim…”

He smiles wistfully. “Hey, I’m fine. It was a pipedream and I’m happy for you. I truly am. Tell me about this boy who has stolen your heart.” He hands her another bolt. “One more to go.”

“Well, he’s not a boy, Tim. He’s a man. He’s thirty-four.” Timothy’s eyes are slightly startled at the age gap but he quickly returns to loosening the last bolt without commenting. “He’s really smart. He works for Illuminate. He’s very kind and sweet and special.”

“He’d have to be to win your heart.”

Rose smiles softly. “Thanks. I…I really like him.”

“And how does he feel about you? Does he treat you right?”

“Yeah,” she says. Timothy smiles at the look on her face.

“Then that’s all that matters.” The last bolt comes undone and Rose puts it with the others for safe-keeping while Timothy wrestles the casing off and sets it to the side. Rose hands him tools as he asks for them and carefully calibrates the laser, before they return the casing to its proper position and retighten the bolts.

It takes them three hours to do the remaining seven lasers and by then Rose is sure she’s dulled Timothy to death with her talk of Jonathon and their few dates so far. Timothy doesn’t complain and even asks her questions from time to time. He has always been a pleasant bloke and though they’ve been casual friends since secondary school and always been easy with each other, she’s never confided this much in him before, though he did listen to her when she and Elliot imploded.

Of course, she’s really had no one to talk to about this new change in her life, all of her free time being spent with him and her mother being someone she isn’t sure she’s wanted to let in that far about Jonathon. Eventually she runs out of things to say and realizes that she’s been monopolizing the conversation so she encourages Timothy to talk. He tells her all about his hopes and dreams after graduation and the fact that he wants to work at Illuminate, though anyone with a mind like Tim’s does.

When Timothy is one hundred percent sure that everything is perfect and that the lasers have all been positioned to his satisfaction they troop down the stairs to the stage where Elliot and Sarah have been overseeing the setup of the robots. Rose helps Timothy bring his own two out of their special packing and put them into place. Behind the curtain they do a full run-through of the show sans lasers.

They are dismissed for dinner by Professor Cullen’s grad student, who will stand guard over the robots until they return. Rose asks Timothy if he wants to join her and Jonathon for dinner but he declines, sensing she is only asking out of obligation. Rose lets it go, though she genuinely thinks her friend would have enjoyed talking with her boyfriend.

Jonathon’s face breaks into a beaming smile when he sees her approaching and he hugs her enthusiastically, dropping a chaste kiss on her forehead. They hurry off to one of the vendors set up in the lecture halls and purchase a quick meal of pizza and salad and go eat outside on the sprawling back courtyard of the science building. It is relatively deserted and has lots of nooks and crannies that lead to privacy. Jonathon pulls her into one briefly for a few minutes of kissing before Rose’s watch beeps.

“I need to get back. The show will be starting shortly.” They step out of the alcove and Rose shivers as something passes over the sun. The sky is darkening as clouds begin to fill it, some of them white and fluffy but those a bit further away dark and threatening.

“There’s a storm coming,” Rose says gesturing to the sky.

Jonathon glances up at the darkening clouds. “That’s odd,” he says as the distant clouds roil and reach hazy fingers towards the ground. “It doesn’t even smell like rain.”

Rose shrugs. “Wind must be blowing the other direction,” she says. But there is no wind and they both can see it from the stillness of the tress in the courtyard. A shiver rolls down her spine and she clasps his hand a little tighter.

“We better get back inside,” Rose says gesturing to the sky, “before the oncoming storm arrives.” She pulls him along behind her, feeling a strange sense of relief as they enter the building and leave the approaching darkness behind them.

Ch. 19:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/149656.html