Just Another Shop Girl (1/18)

[amberfocus]

A/N:  This is a rewrite of my first Nine/Rose story and Jack is in it, too.  It takes place right after Boom Town.  There is no smut because it was meant to occur in canon and I didn't know I could write smut back then, but there is a lot of flirting and teasing and hints of romance.  Events in this story are referred to in my Time Eternal Series and in Jack's Path (but you need no knowledge of those stories) and it is where we first meet the Tirawls.  Even if you have read the story before, I am adding about 500 to 1000 words per chapter to flesh it out and change things I didn't feel were quite right from before I really learned how to write Nine.  Sorry, no banners for this one.  I don't even have any pictures of Rose, Jack and Nine together and certainly no Tirawls or Tessa (who sorta looks like Anna Pacquin from True Blood).

Chapter One: Never Boring

 

“I honestly don’t know, Rose,” the Doctor sighed. “All these shops look the same to me.”

 

“I thought that was my line.” Rose Tyler shook her head in frustration and not a little irritation. “Least it’s not corridors or tunnels,” she muttered. “Are you sure you left it in Canonbury?” she asked hands on her hips and a challenging look in her eyes.

 

 

“Of course I’m sure I left it in Canonbury,” the Doctor said indignantly. He pulled the little yellow claim ticket out of his pocket and waved it at her. “See, says right here on the ticket.” He stilled it to look at it and turned slightly sheepish. “Oh,” he said. “Barnsbury. Whoops.  Honest mistake.”

 

“Think your memory is getting as bad as your driving lately,” Jack Harkness said with an irreverant grin. “I mean really, Doctor, we’ve been tramping around all day and yet again, we’re not even in the right place.”

 

“Oi, what do you mean yet again?” protested the Doctor. "It’s only happened once, no, twi—well, three times since you came on board.” His huff kind of petered out as the count went up and Jack smirked at him.

 

“Don’t argue with the designated driver, Jack. Just makes him tetchy.”

 

“I’m not tetchy,” growled the Doctor. Tetchily.

 

Rose sighed. Her feet hurt. She’d been walking around all day long with Jack and the Doctor looking for a shop that wasn’t even there. “Come on,” she said. “I’m hungry, I’m tired, and I’m sore. Let’s get back to the TARDIS. We can try again in the morning. And one of you is going to rub my feet tonight.”

 

“Oh, I volunteer, sweetheart,” piped up Jack immediately. “Just as long as you rub my--.”

 

“Jack!” the Doctor and Rose warned in unison. “She’s not rubbing your anything,” continued the Doctor.

 

“Neck,” said Jack in a tone of injured innocence, but the mischievous look he gave Rose told her that neck was not the word he’d been about to say.. “I was going to say neck. Get your mind out of the gutter, Doctor. Although yours can stay there, Rosie. I’ll even join you.”

 

“I will rub her feet, thank you,” the Doctor growled possessively giving Jack his best Oncoming Storm look.

 

“It’s a date,” Rose said entirely missing the startled look that crossed the Doctor’s face at her words or the slightly pleased smile that came over it a moment later. “You know, you really ought to have a setting on your sonic screwdriver to remotely bring the TARDIS to us,” she mused as they tramped through a park on their way back to the ship. “It might come in handy for days like this.”

 

“There’s nothing wrong with a little exercise, Rose,” the Doctor told her. “Keeps us fit for when there’s running.”

 

“I think the running keeps us fit for when there’s running,” Jack put in.  “The walking just tires us out.”

 

“Keep whining and you can walk yourself back to the 51^st century Jack,” the Doctor said.

 

“All I’m saying,” said Rose, “is it might be nice. I mean, what would happen if some big alien threat appeared in front of us and we were too knackered to run?” Rose asked.

 

As soon as they rounded the corner Jack sighed. “You know this is entirely your fault for saying that, right?” he asked Rose.

 

“Entirely,” agreed the Doctor.

 

Rose nodded as she stared at the creature in front of them. Well, there was one thing she could say about life with the Doctor. It was certainly never boring. The Doctor’s hand reached out and grabbed hers and the three of them turned around and ran.

 

 

 

 

Tessa Morgan was bored. And not the usual garden variety flip through all the channels, go and look in the refrigerator, then go and find a book she’d already read five times bored. She was bang her head against the wall until she bled so she’d have an excuse to go somewhere like the hospital A&E room bored. Not that she was into hurting herself, but it might provide some sort of end to the monotony of the day.

 

Fortunately the ring of the phone rescued her from any further thoughts of macabre self-injury. “I’ll get it,” she hollered before remembering that the house was empty and it wasn’t really necessary to yell. All of her roommates were away over the week long holiday from University visiting their families. Families like the one she’d never had. Their absence was in fact a very large cause of the reason she was so mind-numbingly bored. It was also her day off from work.

 

That was about to change as the man on the other end of the phone was her boss. “Hi, Tessa, it’s Will. Julie called in sick today. Would you like to take her shift?

 

“Depends. What are the hours?” she asked not wanting to appear too eager until she found out. She wasn’t coming in for anything less then three hours. It wasn’t worth the time spent on buses to get there.

 

“Noon to six,” he said.

 

“Okay, then. See you in two hours.”

 

Tessa liked her job at Will’s Antiquities and Pawn and she didn’t mind working extra shifts, especially on days like today when there was nothing else to do. She found all the old things fascinating and the modern day items that people often pawned filled her with curiosity over the people who had bought some of those things in the first place. And Will was extraordinarily interesting for an old man, a real people person with an intriguing life history that he was only too willing to share.

 

She went up to her room and put on a dress. Will required everyone who worked in the antique shop to look more than just presentable. He had definite ideas about modesty, hair and makeup in his employee dress code, but it was worth it. She took off her regular layer of eighteen-year-old girl makeup and reapplied it much more subtly, being careful to place only the thinnest line of eye-liner around her rich emerald green eyes.

 

Tessa pulled her honey-colored hair back into a ponytail and then wrapped it around itself and secured it with a bun holder and two wooden pins. She slipped into a modest pair of flat shoes with good foot support and then gave herself a once over before she glanced at the clock. She grabbed her purse, locked the flat and hurried to the bus stop. She could just make it.

 

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[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Always the opportunist.